Some universities reopen in typhoon hit areas

Some universities in areas hit by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines managed to resume classes last week. But others, in the worst-hit eastern Visayas region, may have to be rebuilt.

The biggest logistical challenge has been to reopen schools, with aid agencies, the United Nations and UNICEF funding urgent repairs to 3,000 primary and secondary school classrooms to enable them to be functional.

This included covering roofs with tarpaulins, and using tents and makeshift learning spaces to ensure that classes could resume as soon as possible in a bid to bring some normalcy to disrupted lives. Schools reopened on 7 January.

Although school attendance was over 90% even in some of the badly hit areas, local education authorities admitted that many students would have to attend classes in makeshift structures for several more weeks.

Some school and university buildings continue to shelter evacuees and the homeless.

Haiyan, or typhoon Yolanda as it is known in the Philippines, struck on 8 November with winds among the strongest ever recorded. The death toll is already over 6,000, and four million people were displaced, according to the UN.

Schools and higher education institutions were closed in the wake of the disaster.

Some 40 higher education institutions suffered some damage, and the Philippines senate allocated 10 billion pesos (US$222 million) for the reconstruction of affected campuses.

Many, such as Capiz State University – which has 10 campuses, nine of them damaged – were able to resume some classes last week.

But Tacloban City, among the worst hit, is still struggling to get back to normal with less than one fifth of its primary and secondary schools able to reopen on schedule in early January. Universities are set to resume classes, although later than expected.

Leyte Normal University reopens 16 January.

Many university students have been assisting in clear-up and relief operations.

Tacloban City is still dealing with bodies, with a mass grave being dug in Suhi village.

The University of the Philippines campus in Tacloban, which serves the worst-hit Samar and Leyte provinces and is situated close to the coast, had over 1,500 students. It was severely damaged and may have to be rebuilt.

The university’s Visayas Tacloban College, which lost three students in the storm, said in a comprehensive report issued on 13 January that the roof of the library and of the management studies buildings “was completely blown away”. The first floor of the management studies building “was ravaged by flood due to storm surge”.

Windows were also shattered across campus buildings, the report said, and the canteen would not be operational until February. Nearly all computers were damaged but science laboratories had survived. Nonetheless, some classes have resumed at the damaged site.

Many students have transferred elsewhere in the university system.

Although women’s dormitories at Visayas Tacloban College were partially damaged, the report said students who needed accommodation would be housed free thanks to donations from the University of the Philippines.

The university’s Diliman campus said classes resumed on 7 January with an additional 270 students cross-enrolled from Tacloban.

The university’s Cebu campus has also reopened, taking in another 100 Tacloban students who are being housed in temporary prefabricated accommodation.

The Los Banos campus reopened with an additional 124 Tacloban students, whose tuition fees have been waived.

However, the Palo campus – which houses a school of health sciences that trains community health workers – has been declared unfit for use, its 200 students unable to return to classes until transfers to other institutions are sorted out.

Prospero de Vera, vice-president for public affairs at the University of the Philippines, told local media that the reconstruction of campuses would be an opportunity to make them more climate-resilient.

“While the government is still overwhelmed by the extent of the disaster, the University of the Philippines is already looking beyond,” he said. The university would design a system for mobilising people during disasters and capacity building in local governments, he told the Philippines Inquirer.