GORKI, August 26 (Itar-Tass) - A total of 156 schools have turned out to be flooded and now it is necessary to send children from the flood-hit areas to other schools, Russian Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov said on Monday.
At least 75 schools have been flooded in the Amur region while 44 schools have been flooded in the Jewish Autonomous Region, 32 schools in Primorsky Territory and five schools in Khabarovsk Territory, Livanov said.
“Although preparations for the new school year are held ahead, now the new circumstances force us to send children to other areas,” the minister said.
At present, “based on information from Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories children can go to schools and kindergartens from the beginning of the new school year”, Livanov said, adding, “Three and nine schools have been evacuated in the Amur and Jewish Autonomous regions.”
“The schools should have to accept 3,914 children. Someone start going to schools and kindergartens in neighboring regions from September 2. Another 1,300 children will be carried to children’s federal education centers. For example, the Okean camp of Primorsky Territory will accommodate 1,030 children while the Orlyonok on the Black Sea will be able to accept about 300 children from the Amur and Jewish Autonomous regions,” the minister said.
Livanov said damage was rather small to schools in the Magadan region and Yakutia. “All children will be able to go to schools from September 2,” he said.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev riveted attention to the state of schools in the flood-hit areas. “Communications have been destroyed somewhere. Schools’ buildings have been flooded in several areas,” the Premier said, adding that the school year in the flood-hit Far East would start in time.