Asian Earthquake Victims 'missing Out on School'

Nearly 300,000 children are still unable to return to school six months after the south Asian earthquake, according to a children's charity.

In a briefing released this week to mark the six-month anniversary of the earthquake, which killed an estimated 87,000 people in northern Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on October 8 last year, Save the Children reported that pupils in Pakistan are desperate to return to school.

A total of 7,669 schools were destroyed in the earthquake, killing 18,100 students and affecting 790,000 children. So far 500,000 pupils have returned to school, but many are still being taught in makeshift tents and buildings.

The charity is providing temporary classrooms for up to 600 schools and 60,000 children in Pakistan over the next two years, but warned that the scale of the problem meant more assistance and funding was urgently needed.

"Missing out on an education has a profound effect on a child's future," said Jasmine Whitbread, the chief executive of Save the Children, who recently returned from Pakistan.

"The longer a child is out of school, the higher the risk that they will never return and will be put to work. If the government of Pakistan, the UN and international donors don't prioritise getting these children back into school soon they will have failed them."

The charity has made a number of recommendations to get children in these areas back to school.

It has called for a mass teacher training programme to replace the staff killed in the earthquake, improve the quality of education and reduce class sizes.

The charity also wants the international community to rebuild and improve the quality of school buildings, ensuring that temporary structures are provided so that lessons are not held in tents "for years to come".

It says catch-up classes should be provided for children who have missed months of education and allowances made for those who missed exams because of the earthquake.

The briefing also recommends that every child should have access to education so that girls do not miss out.

But while the charity acknowledges the "major catastrophe" of the earthquake, it also says the disaster has presented an opportunity to improve children's access to education in the affected areas.

Pakistan has the second largest illiterate population after India, with just 48% able to read and write.

However, in areas where the government has allocated more of its total budget to education, the literacy rate has risen to more than 60%.

"It is now vital that the local and federal government, and responding agencies, work hard to ensure that this head start is not lost, and also to seize the opportunity to improve school buildings, ensure greater access to education, especially for girls, and increase teacher training," the briefing says.

"The earthquake has also created an opportunity for agencies to work with the government and communities to increase access to quality education in areas where, traditionally, access has been limited."

The recommendations will be presented to the government of Pakistan and the district governments of Kashmir.