Education to gradually recommence in four earthquake-affected provinces

Photo: AA

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''We will be starting education in four provinces on March 27. We will bring our children together with their teachers and peers in their schools,'' minister Mahmut Özer writes on his social media account, adding that education will commence on Monday gradually in different districts of Malatya, Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, and Hatay provinces.

Özer lists the districts in these four provinces where on-location education will resume on Monday.

Over a month after the February 6 earthquakes, killing over 50,000 and affecting 13 million people, 1.3 million students returned to the classroom in the ravaged provinces of Gaziantep, Adana, and Osmaniye on March 13, according to Turkey's state news portal Anadolu Agency.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education indicated that more than 240,000 students were transferred to educational institutions in other provinces.

The government also decided to switch to online education at the universities after the February 6 earthquakes for the spring semester in order for student dormitories to be used to house victims.

February 6 earthquakes

On February 6, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 struck the southern city of Maraş. The first quake in the Pazarcık district at 4.17 a.m. was followed by the second one in Elbistan about nine hours later.

The quakes affected 11 provinces in Turkey's south and southeast, as well as Syria's northern parts.

The official death toll from the quakes is over 50,000.

Nearly two million people have been displaced due to the earthquakes. (AÖ/WM)