OneWorld.net (U.S.)

PESHAWAR: in collaboration with the government and other agencies is estimating the number of quake-affected children in need of schooling. Feasibilities are being prepared for likely locations of temporary schools.

According to UNICEF this is difficult because of the widespread devastation and the migration of families to safer areas in the wake of the frequent aftershocks that continue to reverberate across the affected areas. An additional challenge will be to locate teachers and to find people who can act as temporary teachers until new recruitments can be made. In Azad Kashmir government buildings have been damaged and many officials and their families have died. A major challenge will be to establish safe, alternative shelters, with adequate facilities and services in the mountainous terrain.

Another critical concern is the educational needs of thousands of children disabled by earthquake related injuries.

According to official estimates approximately half of the 53,000 dead are children, many of whom were in schools at the time of the quake. There are no definitive figures yet on the number of schools damaged or destroyed in the earthquake; however, education officials estimate that 8,000 schools have been destroyed in Shangla, Batagram and Mansehra districts of the NWFP and 2,000 schools have been destroyed in Azad Kashmir. The vast majority of schools in the affected areas have been damaged beyond repair. There were a total of 11,534 primary and secondary schools in the quake hit areas of Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

The UNICEF has supported the Ministry of Education in assessing the immediate needs of the children. UNICEF’s priority is to get children back to school as quickly as possible to help them cope with the trauma.

UNICEF Education Officers are conducting assessments of the affected areas and a synthesis of the initial findings is being compiled. This includes identification of potential implementing partners including existing partners. The UN agency will assist in the provision of school supplies, texts book, teaching aids, furniture and uniforms and for cleaning and repairing damaged schools.

The agency will support the Education Department in re-establishing operations as soon as possible. It has ordered 1,740 “School in a Box” kits to supplement the current stock of 300. Kits will be distributed on a priority basis to the most severely affected areas as soon as temporary schools are established, with an expected timeline of 2-3 weeks.

Each kit has educational supplies for more than 80 students and 2 teachers and contains items such as exercise books, pens, crayons, blackboards, chalk, scissors, tape and school bags. Kits will provide supplies for an estimated 160,000 children and over 3,500 teachers. The Fund is coordinating with the Federal Ministry of Education to initiate urgent printing of school textbooks by relevant provincial governments in the NWFP and Punjab (which supplies textbooks to Pakistan Administered Kashmir) and their distribution to the affected areas.

Source: Daily Times More