Thousands of children affected by last month’s earthquake in Nepal returned to schools yesterday, a working day in the Himalayan nation, five weeks after the disaster killed more than 8,600 people and destroyed many homes.
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 struck on April 25, affecting almost a third of the 28 million population. A second quake of 7.3 magnitude on May 12 has hampered efforts to rebuild.
The government and aid agencies have built 137 temporary learning centres for 14,000 children who attended schools across Nepal on Sunday.
Aid workers said over 4,500 education centres 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 the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
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.
