Students at nearly 230 schools receive new books, bags and desks and move into tent classrooms to make way for reconstruction

Second-graders at Pak Gali Boys High School in Poonch District attend class in a 20' by 40' tent provided by USAID. The Oct. 8 earthquake destroyed five rooms at the school, forcing students to crowd into three remaining rooms or to study in the open. This tent houses five elementary classes and once again enables each grade to occupy its own space.

"I love that we have chairs and desks. Before this, we studied on the floor."

-- Noman Hud, an eighth-grader at Pak Gali Boys High School

Educational institutions were among the worst-hit when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook northern Pakistan the morning of Oct. 8. As classrooms crumbled, the damage stretched far beyond the loss of thousands of lives and physical infrastructure. Students remained traumatized when schools reopened, often unable to stay indoors or focus on their work. Some students had no classes to return to; others studied in rooms with cracked walls; still others crowded into surviving rooms or attended classes in the open air. Often, they sat on the floor because desks, chairs, even books, were buried under rubble.

To restore safe classroom space and to enable students to return to a normal routine while schools prepare for reconstruction, USAID paid local villagers to clear rubble from school sites, provided 20' by 40' tents as temporary classroom space to 228 schools, and funded new books, bags, desks and chairs for more than 36,000 students. The Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), a USAID implementing partner, selected school sites across six districts with the help of education officials and facilitated the election of a management committee in each school to enable community ownership and involvement. Village residents clear rubble and erect school tents at the prevailing daily wage of 200 rupees ($3.33), earning cash they can spend within the local economy. New blackboards, desks and chairs fill the tents, while students receive new books and bags. School officials say these changes provide far more than much-needed classroom space and supplies: they also boost the con-fidence of children haunted by fears of another disaster.

Until they moved into tents, many students were scared of sitting in damaged classrooms, said Muzaffar Husain, headmaster of the Pak Gali Boys High School in Poonch District, one of the first schools to inaugurate the new tents. "Children focus better when they perceive no threat to their world," Husain said. "They now see safe structures, desks and furniture. They have begun to complete their homework again and to come to school on time." Eighth grader Noman Hud said he liked the new tents at Pak Gali. "There's no danger here. We can study in peace." The father of three Pak Gali students, Shaukat Hasan, said his kids were happy to go to school again because they had a safe place to sit. "This is a very good program," Hasan said. "Our school routine is getting back to normal."