News 08.05.15

Earthquake Risks Ruining Nepal Schooling for Generations

Unicef warned today that one million school age Nepali children will be unable to return to the Himalayan nation's ruined school infrastructure after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit on 25th April.    

Ruined Schools

In earthquake affected areas up to 90% of the country's school infrastructure is in ruins, with an estimated 24,000 classrooms currently inoperable or damaged beyond habitation or repair.

Emergency Shelter

Schools have been closed by government order for the last 12 days and any still standing have been turned over to relief operations and emergency shelter. Schools capable of reopening are required to begin teaching students again on 15th May. How practical that will be remains unclear.

The BBC reports that Unicef Kathmandu spokesman Kent Page is concerned by the lack of temporary learning spaces available to the nation's children, as relief efforts attempt to address the scale of the destruction.

Earthquake Trauma

Mr Kent explained: "We know that children need to go to school not only to learn, but schools are places of protection for children who have been through the trauma of an earthquake.

"It protects them from exploitation and abuse because everybody knows what they are doing and where they are."

While the immediate need for temporary learning spaces is beginning to be addressed by Unicef and other agencies around the nation's capital Kathmandu, the implications of the shortage of classrooms for isolated rural areas of the devastated country are far less certain.

Impact For Generations

Tomoo Hozumi, a Unicef representative for Nepal, said that failure to tackle the need for temporary school accommodation and subsequent reconstruction could lead to a massive school drop-out which will impact for generations:

"Almost one million children who were enrolled in school before the earthquake could now find they have no school building to return to.

"Prolonged interruption to education can be devastating for children's development and future prospects," he added.

Since the Maoist revolution in Nepal, children aged between five and nine are supposed to receive free education between 09:30 and 15:00 daily. Numbers of children in education have increased by x% since the 1990s.

Rural Schools Suffer

However, despite official government policy and a rise in children attending schools, rural areas are seeing less of the promised benefits or government funding. Schools are forced to charge fees to fund teacher places and educational materials, while in rural subsistence communities parental labour and donations maintain school infrastructure.

Vigilance Reconstruction Goal

Vigilance Properties in partnership with Gurkha Welfare Trust is raising funds for its own school reconstruction project in the Western Nepali village of Chiuribote, for further information or to donate follow the below donation link:

https://www.justgiving.com/VigilanceProperties