Reintegration After Recurrent Flooding: Psychosocial Stress, Coping, and School-Level Barriers in Naseerabad’s Public Schools

Abstract

Recurrent flooding disrupts schooling in Pakistan through prolonged closures, displacement, and unstable school functioning. Beyond infrastructure damage, psychosocial functioning shapes reintegration because fear, disrupted sleep, and reduced attention affect attendance, participation, and the capacity of teachers to restore learning, consistent with Education in Emergencies protection and wellbeing expectations. This qualitative phenomenology study was conducted in flood-prone public schools in Naseerabad Division, Balochistan. Participants included students, teachers, and head teachers selected using purposive sampling and variation by role, gender, school level, location, exposure frequency, displacement, and whether schools were used as shelters. Semi-structured individual interviews explored psychosocial impacts, reintegration barriers, coping, and feasible school-level supports. Data were analyzed using pragmatic, policy-facing reflexive thematic analysis. A five-item reintegration check-in was used descriptively to contextualize interpretation. Fear and worry disrupted sleep, concentration, and motivation, weakening classroom engagement and triggering weather-cued avoidance. The climate of the schools not only influenced return trajectories but also played a buffering role with coach support and understanding routines decreasing distress and increased withdrawal with teasing, stigma and scarce teacher time resources. Participants offered viable suggestions within boundaries, focusing on people's support of routine restoration, shorter check-ins, time spent in safe spaces, anti-stigma norms, catch-up learning which protects dignity and more clear pathways for help, and support contact with families, teacher peer support.