Race to re-open cyclone-hit schools

Myanmar authorities, international aid agencies and local social groups are racing to repair damaged schools to have children in the cyclone-devastated Ayeyarwady Delta back into the classroom by early next month.

The move is seen as an important part of the recovery process for children. "The issue around getting schools open again is partly education, but you also want children to be back into a routine – back into a sense of normalcy as quickly as possible to help them overcome everything that's happened to them in the last few weeks," said Guy Chase, deputy country director of Save the Children in Myanmar.

According to Myanmar education authorities, more than 4,000 primary, middle and high schools that previously served an estimated 1.1 million children were damaged or destroyed in the cyclone.

Nationally, most schools in Myanmar re-opened on 2 June, after their traditional hot-season break.

But the formal reopening of schools in the cyclone-stricken Ayeyarwady Delta and the outskirts of Yangon was postponed for a month, following extensive damage to school facilities, although local authorities in some of the delta's larger towns have tried to re-open already.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children are now working with local Buddhist and church groups to organise repairs to school buildings or create "safe learning spaces", to import educational supplies, and train teachers in dealing with traumatised students – to help get the education system functioning again.

Some Myanmar dissidents and aid groups have criticised the drive to get kids back into the classroom so quickly in the midst of an on-going emergency relief operation.

However, Michael Bociurkiw, a UNICEF spokesman, said the 2004 Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake showed "there is no better way to help families and to help children than to get [children] into the classroom."

Besides giving children an outlet, a structure and an opportunity for healing, getting them back into school also "gives parents and caregivers time to start focusing on rebuilding their lives" without worrying about their children's whereabouts, Bociurkiw said.

Chase also said there was concern that if children did not return to school quickly, they might never return at all.

Risk of further dropouts

Even before Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar had high primary school dropout rates, with up to half of children leaving school before finishing five years of education, due to poverty and pressure to help their parents by working.

"The sooner the children get back into school the less chance there is of them dropping out of school," said Chase. "Dropouts are a big problem in the country anyway at the best of times. And in an emergency situation, we know from research, the longer a child is out of school, the less chance there is that they will ever go back to school."

Yet getting the young survivors of Nargis – which left more than 133,000 people dead or missing when it struck on 2 and 3 May – back to school will be a massive logistical task, given the severe destruction to the delta's education infrastructure.

"This was really a children's catastrophe in terms of the damage to infrastructure that kids access - we are talking about schools, health clinics and play areas," Bociurkiw said.

Education infrastructure devastated

Of the 4,000 schools affected, about 1,200 were demolished, another 800 were severely damaged, and 2,000 lost their roofs in the powerful wind.

Photo: International Federation

More than 4,000 school buildings were damaged or destroyed by Nargis

Aid agencies are now importing 200,000 roof sheets. In areas where schools were more seriously damaged, they are erecting large tents or building simple shelters with local materials such as bamboo and palm fronts to create "safe learning spaces".

They will also bring in other education supplies and materials for teachers and students.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear precisely how many teachers survived the disaster or are able to return to work, and how many children will be left in any one school.

Kaz de Jong, a trauma specialist with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said that in one remote area, he encountered a teacher who tried to register students and told him that only 70 of the school's 200 pre-cyclone students had survived.

But agencies say they are already planning to train teachers - or community volunteers who may temporarily fill in for them – in how to deal with children still traumatised by their experiences, and losses.

Says Chase: "We are planning training for teachers around psycho-social issues and to prepare them for re-starting school in pretty traumatic circumstances and how to help the children through this process."

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