Delhi- Ko Khaing rises early every morning to go to his job feeding ducks, so he can support his family. But, the twenty-three year old would rather be still feeding his mind at the university where he was a second year geography student before cyclone Nargis destroyed his village, a little over a year ago.

“I do wish to start university again, if I get a chance,” he said in a recent interview, from his home in Mayan Wa village, Laputta Township, in the Irrawaddy Delta.

“All I think about when I’m feeding the ducks is going back to university,” he said.  

The majority of people in the village are farmers. Only about 15 villagers were educated.  

Ko Khaing left University last year because he could not afford to pay his university expenses any longer with the income from his family’s small business. He feeds their flock of 190 ducks everyday from early morning until around 5pm.

“The money from the business is only enough to buy food for our family and pay two of my younger brothers’ school fees”, said Khaing, who takes care of the whole family of seven, including both parents, who are over 60 years old.

“Now eggs prices are falling from 95 kyats to 70 kyats and the price of duck food has become so high,” he added.

He wants a job with good income, but such jobs are hard to find while the local economy recovers from the cyclone’s devastation.

But, Khaing is not the only student whose education has been interrupted in the Irrawaddy.

Many school children have also been forced to drop out in Laputta Township, one of the worst hit regions on May 2-3, 2008.

“At least six children per class room dropped out this year”, said a sixth grade teacher from Pyin Kayine High School, in Laputta, where over 1500 students were attending.

“Parents have had to move to other cities for better jobs, which is one major cause of children dropping out of the schools”, she added.

A villager also said, “more children will drop out of school in harvest time, in the month of November, because children can help their parents by cooking and feeding animals in the fields”.  

However, the effort to rebuild the education system in the Delta has seen improvements in certain areas, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund – UNICEF’s regional office in Rangoon.

It said the number of registered school children has increased from1.6 lakh to 1.7 lakh in the 2009 academic year in five townships where UNICEF has been rebuilding schools in the Delta since Nargis hit.  

“Where the students were absent from classes and we have tried to find ways to get them back to school”, said Win Aung, an Educational Specialist from UNICEF, Rangoon. “It is just one of the challenges,” he added.

UNICEF helped rebuild about 200 makeshift huts and about 700 tarpaulin huts in Bogale, Laputta, Pyapone, Dedaye, Kyaiklat, Khun Chan Kone and Kawhmu townships. The agency also completed rebuilding 9out of 20 schools in Dedaye, where the cyclone damaged over 200 schools.  

Over 4000 schools were destroyed by Nargis in Irrawaddy Delta, by Nargis.

According to the Post Nargis Joint Assessment- PONJA report in July 2008, it is estimated that over 50% of the schools and nearly 75% health facilities in the affected areas were destroyed or badly damaged.  

The rebuilding a school in Irrawaddy delta will cost $50,000 to $100,000 USD. But, the cost depends on the location of the schools and size, said Win Au “We have enough budget for this 2009, but we do not have yet for 2010 to 2011 fiscal year”, he added.

But, the Burmese Education Ministry, in Nay Pyi Daw, told Mizzima News that the school rebuilding process has been completed 75% in the Delta. And it will try to finish the rest of the schools, except those being built by INGOs and NGOs.  

“We will try to finish the rest of the schools rebuilding within 2009,” said Colonel Sann Tun, a spokesman for the Education Ministry.  

There are still several challenges facing many families in the Delta who want their children to continue their education.

Eight hundred students attended the High school and attached Middle school in Mayan Wa village before Nargis completely destroyed the building. Now, it has two separate class sessions, in the morning and afternoon, because the rebuilding project has not been completed.

The father of two children from that village said in an interview, “four times a day I drop up and pick up my two children with a boat, and it takes one hour each way”.   

The villagers use boats to travel from one place to another in raining season.  

And, a two story high school with 9 class rooms in Pyin Kayine village, Lapputa township, was only rebuilt as a one story building after being destroyed by Nargis.

“School children were squeezed tightly in class rooms, even though classes were divided into morning and evening sections”, said the school teacher.

UNICEF still faces many challenges in its attempt to rebuild schools across the Delta, because the damage was so great.

According to PONJA, the storm affected four million people, causing damage to 486,539 homes, over 7,900 factories and commercial establishments. And, 300,713 acres of farmland were flooded.

For now, Ko Khaing will have to continue rising early to feed his family’s ducks and only dreaming about returning to university while the Irrawaddy Delta slowly recovers from the destructive visit of Cyclone Nargis.