Nearly 100,000 students in Quang Binh and over 30,000 others in Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh province have returned to school after a week off due to flood.

However, around 24,000 kids cannot go to school because their schools have been ruined.

The Education and Training Department of Quang Binh province said all schools were flooded, five students died and some were injured in the flood. When the flood went down, students and volunteers were mobilized to clean up classrooms. On October 12, nearly 100,000 kids went to school again.

Quang Binh still has over 50 schools, mainly kindergartens and primary schools, with 14,000 students closed because of serious damages of school buildings.

In Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh province, over 30,000 children went to school on October 11. However, nearly 11,000 primary and kindergarten pupils have to stay at home, waiting while their schools are being repaired.

After flood, the equipment of schools in Ha Tinh and Quang Binh has been seriously damaged. It is estimated that losses caused to the education sector by the flood is 84 billion dong (US$4.4 million) in Quang Binh and over $50 billion dong ($2.6 million) for Ha Tinh.

The biggest concern is that many children would give up their studies after the flood. The flood has taken away houses, assets and means of substance of thousands of families so it is extremely difficult for them to send their children to school.

According to the latest statistics of the Central Standing Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention, the flood from October 1-5 in the central region claimed 66 lives and caused losses of 2.75 trillion dong ($144.7 million).

PV