Chiang Mai – Reopening of schools in seven townships of cyclone devastated Irrawaddy division has been postponed by a month, authorities on Tuesday announced.
The Irrawaddy division's education department on Tuesday announced that schools in the delta will reopen in July unlike in the rest of the country, which will be in early June. This is because rescue and reconstruction work is yet to be completed in the delta.
"We made the announcement today. The schools will be opened a month later in areas in the disaster-hit townships," said an official at the divisional education department office in Basein, capital of the coastal division.
The official, however, declined to give further information regarding the announcement.
The authorities have announced May 25 as the admission date for students and that schools would reopen on June 2 for the rest of the country. However, in disaster-hit townships – Ngaputaw, Kyaiklat, Bogale, Laputta, Pyapon, Dae De Ye, and Mawlamyinekyun –schools will reopen in July.
Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into Burma's Irrawaddy and Rangoon division on May 2 and 3, destroyed most schools in the area. It needs to be rebuilt.
A local resident in Bogale town said there were only two high schools which lost its roof and remain standing while the other school buildings were flattened by the cyclone.
"The two high schools have been repaired but other schools are totally destroyed," the resident said.
According to officials of the education department, out of a total of 276 schools in Bogale, at least 99 were severely damaged while about 81 schools have been wiped out.
Besides, parents of school children said they are so busy struggling to survive that it is impossible for them to think about their children's education.
"I wanted my kids to be educated so I tried hard to send them to school. But now that even schools are destroyed and we have also lost our houses, I don't think I can afford to send my children to school though they want to go," a woman in Bogale town said.
Some children said though they wanted to go to school, they are having to struggle for a living after the cyclone had destroyed their homes and killed their parents.
"Students are now taking admission in schools. But I have not been admitted. I really feel bad. This year I should be attending 10th standard. My parents sent me to town to study and I tried real hard. But now we don't even have our home," Nyo Nyo, in Bogale town said.
"I blame it on fate. I think it is my fate," Nyo Nyo added.
