Students at Melsisi Primary and Secondary School are using still temporary shelters, more than two years after cyclone Harold destroyed their classrooms. Photos: Hilaire Bule
Students at Melsisi Primary and Secondary School are using still temporary shelters, more than two years after cyclone Harold destroyed their classrooms. Photos: Hilaire Bule
Students at Melsisi Primary and Secondary School are using still temporary shelters, more than two years after cyclone Harold destroyed their classrooms. Photos: Hilaire Bule
By Hilaire Bule
Students at Melsisi Primary and Secondary School are using still temporary shelters, more than two years after cyclone Harold destroyed their classrooms. Photos: Hilaire Bule
It has been more than two years since Category 5 Tropical Cyclone (TC) Harold left a trail of destruction in Vanuatu, but many students in schools on the affected islands are still studying in temporary classrooms.
Daily Post recently witnessed this in the biggest school on Pentecost — Melsisi Primary and Secondary School.
Since the destruction of the school buildings by TC Harold in April 2020, no repair or reconstruction works has been done.
Three tarpaulin structures, just over two metres in height have been erected at the school compound to accommodate the students. The roof is tarpaulin and the wall is made up of iron roofing with windows only on one side of the temporary classroom.
Daily Post visited the Year 6 students with their teacher and they were using their exercise books to fan themselves.
A parent has expressed his concern on the current status of the Melsisi school buildings, saying the current hot weather could have a negative impact on the children’s learning.
“Our children are not kava to be ‘dried’ under the hot tarpaulins,” he said.
“They are our future leaders and they deserve better treatment and good classrooms. We use tarpaulin to dry our kava for export, and now we are using tarpaulin to accommodate our children.”
Melsisi Primary and Secondary School is among the schools whose reconstruction was tendered by the Ministry of Education and Training last week — over VT600 million for schools that have been identified by the Ministry.
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Not only on Pentecost but also in Luganville. MoET spends 25% of the budget of Vanuatu but produces very little.
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