ADDIS ABABA- A total of 100 billion Birr is required for the restoration and reconstruction of 1,200 schools that have been damaged by the terrorist TPLF group, the Ministry of Education (MoE) said, adding that task force is established for the mobilization of finance.
Planning and Resource Mobilization Director, with the Ministry Elias Girma presented the overall progress of finance mobilization to the Education Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives.
The director told MPs that more than 130 million USD has been obtained from Diaspora Ethiopians and aid agencies for the reconstruction purpose. Also, 1.6 billion Birr has been raised in cash, and 900 million Birr in kind since the Task Force has become operational.
“We have reached an agreement with state governments on ways to galvanize the reconstruction of affected facilities. Accordingly, the reconstruction of the fully damaged schools will be handled by the Ministry of Education while the partially damaged establishments will be restored by states’ educational bureaus.”
Elias further noted that the task force has been working to identify other damages in educational facilities that have not been discovered yet. Due to TPLF’s raid, about five thousand schools are closed and 2.9 million students are out of school. By the same token, 150,000 teachers were forced to leave their jobs by the situation.
The ministry also appealed for additional support from the government and other stakeholders to speedy reopening of damaged schools in war-affected areas.
BY YESUF ENDRIS
THURSDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2022
