Schools reopen in areas of Nepal worst hit by earthquakes ‎

Some 14 thousand Nepali children whose schools were destroyed or heavily damaged in the two earthquakes resumed their classes for the first time in five weeks in temporary learning centres.  The earthquakes on April 25 and May 12 killed 8,693 people and injured 22,221 others. It's estimated that more than 90 percent of schools were destroyed in the worst-hit districts of Gorkha, Sindhupalchok and Nuwakot.  The government and aid agencies have built 137 temporary learning centres for 14,000 children who attended schools across Nepal on Sunday, a working day in the nation which follows the ancient Vedic calendar with a rest day on Saturday.

According to the United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, 32,000 classrooms were destroyed and 15,352 classrooms were damaged after the two major earthquakes in Nepal.  Nearly a million children have been severely affected by the earthquakes in the nation of 28 million.  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.   $24.1 million would be needed to set up the learning centres, train more than 19,000 teachers and volunteers on psychosocial support.  The impoverished Himalayan nation’s high dropout rate was already a major concern, UNICEF said adding there were estimated 985,000 children who couldn't return to classes on Sunday, thus facing a great risk of dropping out of school.  (Source: AP/UNICEF‎/ Reuters)