Another tsunami affected school in the Trincomalee district; Sri Mutumari Ambal School, reconstructed at a cost of SL Rs. 42 million has been handed over yesterday to the Sri Lankan authorities.
Sri Matumari Ambal School was the 22nd school to be reconstructed by the Norwegian Refugee Council was officially handed over to the Sri Lankan Educational authorities in a simple ceremony held at the school premises in Trincomalee on 24 April.
This School is not only one of the worst affected of the 31 schools destroyed by the tsunami in the district, but has also suffered badly during the 20 year conflict.
For more than 10 years now, some 370 students used to study in three tiny cramped temporary sheds huddled together. It was originally located in Kanniya and was destroyed by the conflict in 1990.
As displaced people from Kanniya moved to an IDP camp in Trincomalee town, the school too was shifted near the camp in 1995, so that displaced children could still attend school. It is a Government-assisted mixed school, with a staff consists of 19 teachers.
In addition, a fully furnished assembly hall, Agricultural and Technical Unit, Laboratory, outdoor play area, Netball and Volley ball courts and a boundary wall have also been constructed. The Norwegian Refugee Council also gifted furniture and equipment, for the buildings and landscaped the school compound. Pipe-born water has also been provided for the first time and several toilets constructed.
The master plans of all schools are well poised to create a child friendly learning environment where interactive teaching and child participation help children fully develop their potential. The teachers at the affected schools have also participated in psychosocial training to be better equipped to support traumatized children.
According to the Refugee Council's Country Director in Sri Lanka, Joern Kristensen, the provision of a stable and secure environment for learning is a crucial step in the rebuilding process. "Nothing will signal hope more clearly than rebuilding and reopening schools. Because education for all children is the foundation of a peaceful and stable society," he said.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has so far reconstructed 22 permanent schools out of the 30 it has agreed to build in Sri Lanka in a Rs. 450 million project, to replace those destroyed by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
Out of the 30 schools, six schools were taken out of the project in agreement with the Ministry of Education due to non availability of land and lack of access as a result of renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The two remaining schools are scheduled to be handed over in May, 2007. Over 10,000 children and teachers from 24 schools in the six districts of Matara, Hambantota, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu are benefited from the project.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
