Schools reopen in quake-hit areas of Nepal

KATMANDU: Thousands of schools across the Himalayan nation of Nepal have reopened on Sunday five weeks after the country was hit by two earthquakes.
With most buildings damaged or unsafe, classes are being held in temporary classrooms that were ordered by the Education Ministry.
In the worst-hit districts of Gorkha, Sindhupalchok and Nuwakot, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of schools were destroyed.
The two earthquakes on April 25 and May 12 killed 8,693 people and injured 22,221 others.
According to UNICEF, Nepal’s high dropout rate was already a major concern. Around 1.2 million children between the ages 5 and 16 have either never attended school or have dropped out.
Dressed informally, children clutched their parents’ hands before filing past ruins of collapsed buildings to enter tarpaulin tents and makeshift cottages that will serve as their schools until their old one is re-built.
More than 32,000 classrooms were destroyed across Nepal when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25, affecting almost a third of the 28 million population. A second quake of 7.3 magnitude on May 12 led to no further deaths but hampered efforts to rebuild.
“I am nervous. It is painful to see my classroom in rubble,” said Shasham Shrestha, a tenth grader at the Kuleswor Awas Secondary School in Katmandu.
Shrestha and his friends stood near the collapsed walls of a classroom as teachers assured parents of safety and regular classes.
Hari Lamsal, an Education Ministry official, said opening of schools was important to show that life is getting back to normal.
“We will construct temporary learning centres for schools because reconstruction of old buildings will take time,” Lamsal said.
The government and aid agencies have built 137 temporary learning centers for 14,000 children who attended schools across Nepal on Sunday.
Aid workers said over 4,500 education centers will have to be built to accommodate students who have been forced out of their classrooms by the earthquake.
Nearly a million children have been severely affected by the earthquakes, according to UNICEF.
“Education can’t wait for all recovery and reconstruction,” Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF representative in Nepal, told Reuters on a visit to temporary learning centre, a plastic roofed structure made from long bamboo strands woven as mats to create walls.
“Opening of schools even in temporary centres has several benefits. It provides psychosocial recovery of children who are in stress, protects them from violence ... the risk of being trafficked and their parents can go to work,” Hozumi said.
UNICEF says $24.1 million was needed to set up the learning centres, train more than 19,000 teachers and volunteers on psychosocial support.
School authorities said children will be made to play and interact with teachers before studies start in two weeks.