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Parents and children in the midst of rubble: In Beirut, school attendance is acutely endangered (symbol image)
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Two months after the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut, an aid organization is warning of the dramatic consequences for schoolchildren.
At least a quarter of all children in the Lebanese capital are at risk of missing their schooling, warns the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The consequences of the corona pandemic are not yet included in this estimate.
163 schools were reportedly damaged by the severe explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4th.
A total of 85,000 children attended the schools affected.
"It will take up to a year to rebuild the most severely damaged buildings," said the aid organization.
Given the cost of transportation to alternative education facilities and parents' concerns about the safety of their children on the way to school, there is concern that far fewer children will attend school at the start of the school year than before the disaster, said the IRC director for Lebanon , Mohammad Nasser.
In the further course of the school year it is to be expected that more children will drop out of school.
More than 190 people were killed in the explosion of around 2,750 tons of unsecured ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut.
Thousands were injured.
Large parts of Beirut were destroyed.
Schools in Lebanon are currently closed.
Due to the increase in the number of infections, the government postponed the start of the new school year until October 12.
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Since the pandemic began, more than 35,000 infections and 340 deaths have been recorded in the country.
After the explosion, the number of infections had skyrocketed.
The aid organization Unicef had already warned at the beginning of September that school attendance for tens of thousands of children in Beirut was not guaranteed - although this was all the more important after the disturbing disaster.
"The school can offer children a safe place and a piece of normalcy in the midst of the chaos," said the local Unicef director, Yukie Mokuo.
Schools should now at least offer distance learning.
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