Tripura flood: All educational institutions to reopen on Tuesday after a week's closure

After a week's closure due to flooding, all educational institutions in Tripura would reopen from Tuesday (August 27) except those schools which have been converted into relief camps, an official said on Monday.

After the devastating floods and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall that began on August 19, the Tripura government announced the closure of all educational institutions including schools and universities for an indefinite period.

It has been decided that all schools, government, private and government-aided schools will reopen on Tuesday except those schools where relief camps are now in operational, an order signed by the Education (School) Department Director Nripendra Chandra Sharma said.

Sharma separately told the media that during the heavy rain and flood, examinations at various institutions were also postponed.

Another order issued by Higher Education Department Director Animesh Debbarma said that after reviewing the situation and as per the decision of the state government, it has now been decided that all the government colleges and universities and also the private colleges and universities in the state would re-open from Tuesday.

Officials said that due to the heavy rains and flooding, the infrastructure of 209 schools and a few colleges and their books, documents, and important papers were also damaged.

As per the preliminary assessment, properties and infrastructure of Education Departments worth Rs 11 crore were damaged due to the flood and landslides. These estimates exclude the worst hit Amarpur sub-division and South Tripura district.

According to the officials, relief centres were set up in 239 schools. Books of over 12,000 students were also damaged due to the floods.

Thousands of teachers, non-teaching staff and education department employees have been engaged in relief work and distribution of food packets, water, and other essential commodities among the flood affected people and inmates of the relief camps.