The first temporary school funded by UNICEF
and built by IOM opened in Aceh yesterday - marking the first day of the
school year.
The school at Peukan Bada was opened
by Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) Director Kuntoro
Mangkusubroto, and is part of a fast-track UNICEF / IOM school-building
programme across Aceh and North Sumatra.
The programme will construct 200 temporary schools during the coming months, with IOM building the pre-fabricated concrete structures and UNICEF supplying classroom equipment and textbooks.
Eventually the temporary schools will be replaced with permanent schools and the pre-fab buildings will be handed over to local communities for use as meeting halls, libraries or childcare centres.
Each prefabricated building will comprise at least three classrooms and will serve between 80 to 200 students. Of the total, three have been completed and eight more are nearing completion. The remaining schools will be completed in the next two to three months.
The impact of the tsunami on children was enormous. An estimated 11% of primary school students were killed; 30% of some 500,000 internally displaced people are children and most of the remaining 540,000 school age children have been affected in some way through the loss of family members, friends, houses, schools and teachers.
A damage assessment undertaken by the National Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), the Directorate General of Human Settlements of the Ministry of PublicWorks and IOM found that nearly 500 schools were completely destroyed by the tsunami in Aceh and the subsequent earthquake in Nias. Some 2,500 teachers were killed and an estimated 177,000 children were left without access to education.
For further information, please contact:
Anita Sharma
Tel: + 6221 39830991
Mobile: 6281 1947505
E-mail: asharmaina@iom.int