Nepal returns to school

Nepal returns to school

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Thousands of children affected by the recent earthquakes in Nepal returned to schools on Sunday, a working day in the Himalayan nation.

That comes five weeks after the disaster killed more than 8,600 people, devastated many villages and brought widespread destruction to homes and historic monuments.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

The government and aid agencies have built temporary learning centres for 14,000 children who attended schools across the country. UNICEF said $24.1 million was needed to set up the learning centres, training teachers and volunteers in psychosocial support.

Children clutch their parents' hands as they walk past ruins of collapsed buildings to enter tarpaulin tents and makeshift structures that will serve as their schools until their old one is rebuilt.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Niraj Ranjitkar, 10, puts a book into his rucksack as he gets ready for school.

More than 30,000 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 on May 12 has hampered efforts to rebuild.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
Ranjitkar picks his way through the debris of collapsed houses as he goes to school.

"I am nervous," said Shasham Shrestha, a tenth grader at the Kuleswor Awas Secondary School in Kathmandu. “It is painful to see my classroom in rubble.”

Shrestha and his friends stood near the collapsed walls of a classroom as teachers assured parents about safety and the regularity of classes.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Saksham Karmacharya, 4, pleads not go to school as he cries to his father.

Nearly a million children have been severely affected by the earthquakes, according to UNICEF.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Vice Principal Bijay Karmacharya (right) gives a candy to comfort Saksham (centre).

Resuming education can’t wait for reconstruction of buildings to be completely finished, said Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF representative in Nepal.

"Opening of schools even in temporary centres has several benefits,” he said. “It provides psychosocial recovery of children who are in stress, protects them from violence” and traffickers, as well as allowing their parents to go to work, Hozumi said.

. Bhaktapur, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Children will be encouraged to play and interact informally with teachers before more formal lessons start in two weeks, school authorities said.

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.

. Kathmandu, Nepal. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar