Elementary schools open in quake hit Van

VAN - Hürriyet Daily News

Numbers show that there are about 110,000 school children in Van currently. AA photo

Almost two and a half months after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit, school education started again in central Van province and Erciş town, the epicenter of the initial quake, yesterday.

“We had three separate inspections done in the schools and we only opened those which have been approved,” Van Governor Münir Karaloğlu said, adding that no schools carrying any risk of collapse were opened.

Karaloğlu also said 180,000 students were registered in schools before the quake however 70,000 have moved out of the city.

“We see that more than fifty percent of the students are back. Some have left Van and some will be back. We will continue by completing our needs,” he added.

Meanwhile a number of parents said they did not trust the school buildings and they wanted their children to be educated in container buildings.

Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay visited the quake hit town on Jan. 1 and said 63 out of 250 school buildings in the city are currently out of use.

“We will have one container and one tent school in Van center. The rest have been inspected and we will not open any buildings that have the tiniest amount of risk,” Atalay said.

Atalay also said so far 646 million Turkish Liras has been spent for Van and approximately 300 million Turkish Liras were reserved in the accounts of the Prime Ministry, Religious Affairs Directorate and Turkish Red Cross.

 A 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Oct. 23 killed over 600 and left thousands homeless while an aftershock on Nov. 9 killed 40 more.