Marles lauds school retrofitting

KATHMANDU, AUG 08 -  

Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs and Foreign Affairs Richard Marles, who is on a three-day visit to Nepal, praised the efforts of the Ministry of Education in promoting structurally safer schools and disaster-risk education among children, teachers and local communities.

During his visit to the Tri-padma Higher Secondary School, which was recently retrofitted for natural disasters, with country heads of the United Nations, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) on Tuesday, Marles committed further help in retrofitting other schools.

Tri-padma is one of the 15 schools to have been retrofitted in the last two years in technical support from the ADB through the National Society for Earthquake Technology.

“Nepal is vulnerable to natural disasters and earthquakes pose a major threat to a large number of children studying in schools, the future generation of Nepal. I am pleased Australia is part of a collective donor effort to reduce the risk to Nepali school children,” said Marles.

Earlier this year, AusAID provided $3.9 million in partnership with the ADB, which has also committed $5 million, for the school safety programme in the Kathmandu valley.

AusAID has committed a further $500,000 in technical assistance for capacity-building to institutionalise safe school building. This programme is being implemented as part of the School Sector Reform Programme, a five-year nationwide initiative to enhance access and quality of education, initiated in 2010 with financial support from nine donors, including the ADB and the AusAID.

“Safe schools are critical, not only for children who rely on these structures to learn and develop, but also for society as schools are the doorway to development and social cohesion,” said ADB Nepal Country Director Kenichi Yokoyama.

The Department of Education plans to retrofit 260 school buildings in the Kathmandu valley between fiscal years 2011 and

2015 and to provide training in school safety practices to around 4,000 teachers and 50,000 students. The initiative includes conducting safety assessments, training masons and engineers in safe school construction and raising awareness among local

communities.

Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/08/08/capital/marles-lauds-school-retrofitting/358423/