The government of Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province has officially asked all children to return to their schools, 70 percent of which have re-opened, a provincial educational official said on Thursday.
M. Anas Adam, head of the provincial education department said the government is training new teachers and rebuilding 756 schools destroyed by the Dec. 26 tsunami and wants children to restart their lessons as soon as possible.
The government estimates about 1,814 teachers in Aceh province were killed when the earthquake and tsunami struck while many others lost their houses or family members. As many as 180 education department officials had been reported dead or missing by Jan. 26, Adam said.
Adam called on the government to recruit and train at least 2,000 volunteers to fill the gap, saying the provincial education department has started recruiting new teachers from colleges and an appeal has been made to international organizations to help train them.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children USA and other non-governmental organizations have been making joint efforts to assist distressed children.
"Very sadly, we see in the displaced people camps fewer children than we would expect," CEO and president of Save the Children USA, Charles Maccormack, said. "Although no one knows exactly, we would imagine that 40 or 50 percent of those who died were children or young people."
Indonesia says at least 170,000 people were killed in the tsunamis, including over 90,000 in the worst-hit Aceh.
(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2005)
