LAHORE:
More than 2,000 school buildings across Punjab have been submerged or damaged by the province’s worst flood in decades.
The situation has pushed thousands of children out of classrooms and forced many schools to turn into makeshift shelters for displaced families.
The devastation is widespread across districts. Kasur alone is reported to have over 100 unsafe schools while nearly 90 remain closed in Chiniot. Dozens more in Sialkot, Narowal, Multan and Muzaffargarh are either inundated or declared structurally unsafe.
In Lahore, 45 schools remain shut, many of them converted into shelters.
Sources in the Punjab School Education Department confirmed that at least 66 schools will not reopen until inspections to certify them as safe.
In the flood-hit countryside, classrooms have become survival hubs. Families driven from riverbanks and low-lying areas have taken refuge inside school buildings, turning courtyards into cooking spaces with the educational goals overshadowed by urgent daily needs.
School education department officials said the assessment of the damage caused by the flood is incomplete. Early estimates suggest rehabilitation of the buildings could cost billions of rupees and several months of coordinated efforts.
Education experts fear secondary shocks, including rising dropout rates, pressure on children to work instead of study, and a widening literacy gap in rural areas where access to digital learning remains limited.
Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat referred to the crisis on International Literacy Day. He confirmed that more than 2,000 schools have been affected and assured parents that the government will not allow children’s futures to collapse because of the disaster. Authorities have set up tent schools in flood relief camps on the instructions of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, offering a temporary lifeline for learning.
Rana Sakandar said he had visited the tent schools and seen resilience and determination in the children. He said their courage.has strengthened the government’s resolve to ensure that no child’s dream of education is left incomplete.
To accelerate recovery, provincial departments have been ordered to conduct safety surveys and prioritise repairs.
The deputy commissioners have been tasked with inspecting the buildings before reopening the schools.
News Published in Express Tribune on September 10, 2025.
