Administrators of several schools in parts of East Midnapore are unsure of how to implement the Bengal government’s plan to reopen schools in mid-November as many school buildings are still waterlogged from the floods of last month or used as flood relief shelters.

“Around 113 of East Midnapore's 181 Madhyamik schools are now relief centres for flood-hit people,” said a district official, adding that standing water from rains in mid-September had still not fully receded in many places.

Patashpur and Bhagabanpur blocks stand as the most prominent examples, where school officials have been asked to prepare classrooms of students between Classes IX-XII by November 15, but a cursory glance at many of these school grounds on Wednesday revealed cows tied under tarpaulins sheds.

“Even now, many people can’t go back home (washed away by floods). They are staying in schools that are used as relief centres. How can students come to these buildings?” asked Bhagabanpur panchayat samiti functionary Sheikh Raeesuddin, adding that Moyna, Panskura and Kolaghat were also affected by floods though in lesser measure.

At the Ektarpur High School in Bhagabanpur, middle-aged farmer Arabinda Giri lay under a tarpaulin with his wife and son, a student of Class X.

“I lost four bighas of land in the floods. I want my son to go back to school, certainly, but we need to have a roof over our heads first,” he said.

Nearby, Class X student Dipannita Rana wondered when her home will be repaired. “I want to sit Madhyamik (in 2022). But I don't know how our home will be repaired before that,” she said.

“She is a little immature and so she thinks everything will fall into place,” smiled her mother. “Our present reality is that we don’t even know where our next meal is coming from, outside of this school.”

District officials at the Ektarpur school camp said surveys were being held to estimate how many people could be shifted from school buildings by mid-November.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Ektarpur school administrators and East Midnapore district officials cut a strange picture as the former held ground surveys for reopening of schools and the latter manned relief counters.

In the open hallway, scores of tied cattle lay chewing grass. Most of their owners were inhabitants of the school-turned-relief camp. A few of their older children who had attended the Ektarpur school viewed their present reality with embarrassment.

One of the teachers of Ektarpur High School Abhijit Das said he was not sure if they will be able to meet the state’s November 16 deadline to start classes as the relief centre continues to operate at the institution.

“The relief camp at our school still has around 150 people. We cannot force them out,” Das said, adding that only if the premises were vacant could the mandatory Covid safety protocols such as sanitisation of classrooms be done before letting the students in.

District inspector of schools (secondary) Subhasish Mitra said he was aware of the situation in schools of the flood-hit areas.

“Schools need to reopen now, that’s a fact. But the persons displaced by floods will have to be rehabilitated as well,” Mitra said.