After the flood: Vietnamese schools rush to save books, classrooms

On Monday, teachers in Binh Dinh Province were busy cleaning up their schools after floods hit the central region for the third time in a month. Nguyen Ba Hau, principal of Cat Tai Primary School said: “Recent floods had damaged our projectors, computers, televisions and more than 6,000 books. Damage has been estimated at about VND400 million ($17,600).” 

Documents and records were being saved. Heavy rains began on December 12 and lasted days across the region.

Multiple books were covered in mud.

Teachers tried to wash the books and then dry them.

Librarian Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc carefully pulled books from a thick layer of mud.

“We are looking forward to assistance so that our teachers and students can keep teaching and studying,” said the principal.

At the same time, teachers of Tuy Phuoc High School were cleaning up their classrooms.

Many classrooms were still flooded.

Pham Loi, a sixth-grade student of Phuoc Loc Middle School, said: “I feel very excited to go back to school and see my friends and teachers after days of floods.”

Binh Dinh officials said students of many schools will have to stay at home for one or two more days. They said floods have killed eight students and caused a financial loss of VND31 billion ($1.4 million) for local schools.