Tent school opens for youngest quake victims

POGGIO PICENZA, Italy - School reopens Thursday in a blue tent city in a symbolic return to normalcy for some of the youngest victims of Italy's earthquake.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi and Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini were expected to be on hand for the start of lessons in the tents of Poggio Picenza, a few miles (kilometers) from the hard-hit city of L'Aquila.

Some volunteers started lessons Wednesday in another tent city, but Thursday's opening in Poggio Picenza marks the official restart of the school year for victims of the 6.3-magnitude quake, which struck central Italy April 6, killing 294 people.

Thirty lower and middle school students were expected to show up for class in the three "classrooms" outfitted with desks in the tents, said Poggio Picenza Mayor Nicola Menna, himself a tent resident since the quake.

Middle School teacher Liberata Marchi said most of the year's school work had already been completed before the quake struck, but she nevertheless stressed the need to resume classes.

"Being together, playing with other children, letting them have fun, this is important," she told Associated Press Television News.

Civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso noted that Thursday's start was only a "partial reopening" and that it would still take time for other schools to get under way, either in tent cities or in buildings deemed safe enough to house students.

Gelmini insisted that none of the children would lose the school year as a result of the quake and said she had signed a decree allowing quake victims who had relocated to enroll in any school across the country.

Of the 55,000 people displaced by the quake, an estimated 33,000 are living in the 100-plus tent cities erected in and around L'Aquila and the 26 towns and villages hit by the quake.

Bertolaso said an estimated 20,000 people probably won't be able to return to their homes because they are so damaged, and will need continued assistance through the summer at least.

Speaking on RAI state television, he said the remainder are believed to be living in tents or hotels because they are afraid of returning home while aftershocks continue, even though their homes are habitable.

Italy's interior minister has estimated rebuilding will cost at least euro12 billion (about $16 billion).

Officials have urged vigilance to prevent organized crime from infiltrating the rebuilding effort. Anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso on Thursday proposed making a list of "clean" construction companies who would organize the effort.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)