Thousands of children in Japan will miss out on the start of a new school year as schools and other public buildings continue to house almost 160,000 evacuees who have nowhere else to go, according to the leading independent organization for children.

Along with this warning, Save the Children said it is committed to helping support children return to school.

Stephen McDonald, Save the Children’s Emergency Response Leader in Japan said: “Children have already been through a lot in the past couple of weeks and normally the start of April would be an exciting time for them as they plan to start a new school year. But almost 7000 schools have been damaged by the tsunami and around 286 are currently being used as evacuation centres rather than places of learning.”

“Getting children back to school is a positive step in helping them recover. The children I’ve met just can’t wait to get back to school and get on with their lives.”

The Government of Japan is making every effort to make schools safe and re-house families. But some children who have been displaced and affected by the earthquake and tsunami as well as the subsequent damaged nuclear reactor could face a long wait before they can go back to school.

Save the Children met with teachers in the affected coastal areas of north-eastern Japan, who said the devastation caused by the tsunami was so extensive that it could take weeks to re-open schools in the area.

Yukio Goto, the Headmaster of Shizugawa Elementary School in Minimisanriku said: “I want to reopen
the school as soon as possible, to get these kids back to some sort of normality.”

“We had 450 students here before the tsunami, but now we are anticipating taking in up to 1500- 2000
children because their schools have been destroyed.”

With schools set to start a new term in April, Save the Children plans to distribute education materials to
affected communities to ensure that children's right to education continues.

“Children in the towns and cities along the coast lost everything as the tsunami wreaked havoc,” said
McDonald.

“Save the Children is helping these children and their families by replacing things like pencils, rulers, exercise books and school-bags that were all swept away.”

In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, Save the Children is providing spaces where children can express themselves through play and activity and feel safe again; free of the fears and anxieties of the traumatic event they have lived through. Even in a chaotic and unfamiliar environment, a child friendly space gives children a place to be a child again.