Acehnese children still not in school

Acehnese children still not in school

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

A year after the tsunami, signs of recovery are evident among
Acehnese children, but many challenges remain, a UN body has
said. Many children are not going to school, still suffering from
trauma and boredom, and living in tents and barracks, all of
which require urgent attention, said Lely Jauhari, spokeswoman of
the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Banda Aceh.

"The relief effort was a success immediately after the
tsunami. Most of the children got food, water and shelter, and no
major outbreaks of communicable disease were reported. But,
problems remain a year after," Lely told The Jakarta Post on
Thursday afternoon.

Figures from the Aceh Statistics Agency show that a total of
63,069 children between seven and 15, or 8 percent of a total of
767,044 children in this age group, are still not going to
school. Given this situation, education is now one of UNICEF's
chief concerns, said Lely.

UNICEF has donated vast quantities of textbooks and school
essentials to children, and has recruited, trained and deployed
over 1,000 emergency primary teachers in 12 districts, paying
their salaries for six months. But, rebuilding the schools
destroyed by the tsunami is a major challenge.

Bureaucracy and population displacement are blamed for the
slow pace of school rebuilding with only one permanent school
building having been constructed by the UN body in Aceh so far.

"Building a school is not a piece of cake. Before kicking of
reconstruction, we have to report to the Aceh rehabilitation
agency (BRR) and the local government. But the process takes a
lot of time. In one case, we sought permits to rebuild schools in
one area, but suddenly other parties had already built the
schools there so that our request was turned down," said Lely.

In another case, a plan to rebuild a school had to be aborted
due to a lack of electricity and a water supply.

In addition, people are still coming into the affected areas
for economic and other reasons, which made it difficult for
UNICEF to identify which areas actually need schools, said Lely.

"In order to overcome the various problems, we have set up 135
temporary schools in selected areas of Aceh since May 26," said
Lely. The temporary schools are important in that they not only
provide children with education but also attract parents to
settle in the respective areas, said Lely.

Meanwhile, in order to address the trauma experienced by
children, UNICEF has been working with local government and local
non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

UNICEF provides funding and training while the NGOs and local
government recruit and deployed social workers to help the
children overcome their trauma.

UNICEF has also set up children's centers around Aceh.

"Children, especially those living in tents and barracks, do not need
professional psychologists. They need someone they can trust and
these people should come from their own community," said Lely.

The BRR has estimated that at least 67,500 people, including
children, are still living in tents since the tsunami.