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Learning after the Flood: Attendance Recovery in Rural Secondary Schools
Rafiq Uddin, Ayesha Rahman, Priya Narayanan, Mei Lin Tan
School reopening after floods does not guarantee that students can resume regular attendance. This study examines attendance recovery in fourteen rural secondary schools in northeastern Bangladesh following a major monsoon flood. Daily registers for 1,126 students were linked to household damage surveys and interviews with 44 students, caregivers, and teachers. Interrupted time-series models described recovery over sixteen weeks after reopening, with separate estimates by gender and travel route. Students whose journeys required damaged footbridges returned more slowly than those living at similar distances along usable roads. Girls also reported additional household care duties that persisted after classrooms reopened. Flexible catch-up sessions were associated with improved attendance among students who initially missed several weeks. The analysis cannot separate school responses from differences in community recovery resources. Missing register entries were checked against teacher logs but remain a source of uncertainty. Education recovery plans should coordinate transport access, household support, and flexible learning arrangements instead of treating the reopening date as a complete measure of recovery.