SWABI, Aug 27: Thirty-two public sector educational institutions in the district are housing flood victims, sources in education department told Dawn here on Friday.

According to them, 191 flood-affected families comprising 1,400 persons were living in the educational institutions of Jahangira, Allahdher, Bamkhel and Tordher. They were from the flood-hit villages situated on the bank of Indus and Kabul rivers.

These flood victims are being provided free of cost food, accommodation, electricity, water supply and medical treatment, the sources said, adding these facilities would be provided to them till their presence at the institutions.

However, the sources said, they have been told to take care of the school buildings which were damaged during the stay of internally displaced persons (IDPs) last year.

They said officials of the education department had been striving to vacate these schools but it might be difficult because those shifted to educational institutions had lost their houses in the devastating flood.

When contacted, an education officer said: “We want to open all the institutions on September 1, keeping in mind the precious time of the students. However, it was not possible at present.

We are looking for an alternative to save students' time”

In reply to a question, he said students of these schools might be accommodated in the nearby schools if there was space available for them. However, he admitted that majority of the district schools were overcrowded.

It has been learnt that same strategy would be adopted in other districts of the province, especially in Charsadda and Nowshera where special arrangements would be made for the students.

When contacted, Minister for Education Sardar Hussain Babak said that the government had planned to establish tent schools for the children of destroyed schools. “Till the reconstruction of their schools, the students would study there,” he said.

“It is a prolong process. We should remain patient. It is not possible to put all things in order in a quick move. We are striving for better in worst circumstances and none of the student would be deprived of education,” the minister said. He added that provision of educational facilities to the students was one of the top priorities of the government.

“We also have another plan; to merge the students of the destroyed institutions with those nearby institutions which survived the devastating flood,” he said. “In past, this strategy was applied by the government and proved quite productive. We hope that it would work again,” he maintained.

The minister said government would include the reconstruction of the educational institutions in its rehabilitation plans.