Tsunami destroyed 271 schools in North East

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 December 2004, 11:56 GMT]
Two hundred and seventy one schools in the northeast coastal areas have been destroyed or damaged in the Sunday's Tsunami, said North East Provincial Education Ministry Secretary Mr.Thiagalinkam in a report to the Provincial Ministry for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

An urgent appeal has been made to the Central Ministry of Education to allocate a sum of 135.5 million rupees to effect repairs and rehabilitate these schools in time to re-open on January 10th, Mr.Thiagalinkam said in his report.

Earlier all schools in the country were scheduled to be re-opened on January 3 for the new academic year. But the government has now put off the opening date for January 10 following Tsunami disaster, education sources said.

At an urgent meeting held Wednesday at the Provincial Ministry of Education with Mr.Thiagalinkam in the chair it was decided to deploy six teams to conduct an on the spot of survey of the damages caused to the education sector in the educational districts of Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Killinochchi, Vavuniya, Mannar, Kalmunai, Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee. The Provincial Director of Education and ten senior officials of the Provincial Department of Education and the Provincial Ministry of Education attended the meeting.

Teams of officials have been requested to collect the number of students, teachers, principals and non-academic staff who have lost their lives, the number of students who have lost their school uniforms and school textbooks.

Survey teams are now engaged in assessing the damages caused to the infrastructure of schools, education offices and official quarters, furniture, equipments and other vehicles.