Progress Report - 4th April 2005
RBSL News on Schools
RBSL team member Sivaji De Zoysa has been actively involved in the provision of relief for the Trust. He has co-ordinated extensively on non-food emergency relief on behalf of the Trust. In recognition of his contribution and resulting ground knowledge, Sivaji now plays an advisory role at the Ministry of Education.
It was clear that the level of destruction and chaos brought about by the Tsunami was far reaching and the available resources of the Ministry of Education (MOE) were unable to cope effectively with the urgent needs. Recognizing this, the Secretary of the MOE formed the Technical Sub-committee of the National Monitoring Committee on School Reconstruction and Relief. Sivaji De Zoysa of RBSL is a member of this Technical Sub-Committee.
The primary objective of this Technical Sub-Committee is to help schools to start functioning as normal at the earliest with most of the students, teachers and schools immediate requirements being met at the earliest. This includes coordinating the rebuilding and relocation of schools in the affected areas in conjunction with Donors/NGOs many of whom have signed MOUs with the MOE.
The Ministry of Education reports:
- 182 schools are either fully or partially destroyed and need to be re-constructed / re-habilitated.
- Minor repairs need to be made to the 326 schools that were/are
still being used as Welfare Centers for tsunami IDPs. - Nearly 100 of the damaged schools need to be relocated. For this urpose state and private land need to be identified and acquired.