EXPLORING TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPACTS OF FLOODS ON EDUCATIONAL RECOVERY

Abstract

Floods of 2022 created many challenges for people and it also affected their lives in many aspects. Some people lost their lives, majority of people lost their homes, their source of income, they faced health issues, and they were hardly surviving due to lack of facilities. Floods also affected the lives of students specially School going children. In Sindh, most of the Schools were damaged and still not reopened. Thus, this research is designed which aims to explore the perceptions of teachers of the impacts of 2022 Floods on educational recovery. More specifically, the major focus of this research is to deeply explore how Floods affected the School infrastructure and other resources, enrollment, performance and mental health of students and what kind of challenges were faced by management, teachers and students to recover education and what strategies they used to come out of this situation. For this purpose, qualitative research method is used in which data was collected from the principals/head teachers and teachers of the Flood affected public, Private and SEF Schools. It was found that majority of the Schools were damaged; some Schools were reopened while others are still closed due to lack of financial support to Schools. Children belonging to low socio-economic background became out of Schools because they could not even meet the basic needs so either they were dropped from Schools or they left Schools by themselves. Those children who managed to rejoin the School after Floods, they also faced many challenges because the infrastructure of many Schools was damaged, the other resources including furniture, facility of water and electricity was also affected due to heavy rains and other teaching material was also damaged. Floods also decreased the attendance and enrollment of the School which ultimately affected students‘ performance as well. This research includes different kinds of Schools including Government Schools, PrivateSchools and those running under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) like Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) Schools. These all Schools have different strategies to deal with challenges including natural disasters like Floods or heavy monsoon rains. Some Schools were recovered from that catastrophic situation while others are still struggling to recover their Schools‘ buildings and other resources.