During a ceremony on Saturday, Education Minister Mohsen Haji Mirzaei inaugurated 72 schools in quake-hit underprivileged areas of Kermanshah province through video conferencing, IRIB news agency reported.
The schools, measuring 46,000 square meters in area, consist of 390 classrooms, Haji Mirzaei said, adding 1.14 trillion rials (nearly $27 million) has been invested in the project.
“In Kermanshah province quake devastated many schools, however, we constructed schools twice those destroyed,” he highlighted.
With construction of new schools, educational space has increased by one square meter per student, he added.
Some 78 schools with 418 classrooms were damaged by the earthquake, but with the participation of charities, banks and institutions, more than 190 projects started to make up for the educational spaces, he explained.
Last year, some 73 small schools were built in villages, Haji Mirzaei concluded.
On November 12, 2017, a destructive earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshah. Some 90,000 houses were partly or completely damaged by
the tremor. Sadly, the quake took over 660 lives and left more than 10,000 injured.
Charity foundation opens 12 schools
Duirng the ceremony, Mohammad Mahjouri, deputy director of Barekat Charity Foundation, announced that the foundation constructed 12 out of the 72 schools across the province.
Twelve schools consisting of 160 classrooms have been opened in 6 cities of Javanroud, Salas-e Babajani, Sarpol-e Zahab, Qasr-e Shirin, Dalahu, and Gilan-e Gharb, he stated.
Among which, a technical and vocational center has also been inaugurated, said Mahjouri, Mehr news agency reported.
A total of 250 billion rials (around $6 million) have been spent to construct these educational centers, he further noted, adding, the technical and vocational center also costed over 10 billion rials (about $240,000).
All of which have hosted students since the beginning of the current school year (September 23), he also said.
He went on to add that the foundation has targeted the construction of 2,000 schools by the next two years, 62 percent of which have been completed, he highlighted.
Also, a memorandum of understanding for building 82 percent of the schools has been signed and will soon be implemented, he concluded.
Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam was founded in 1989. In the Iranian calendar year 1386 (March 2017-March 2018), Barekat Charity Foundation- the social arm of the organization- was established with the aim of promoting social justice.
Socio-economic empowerment of communities by encouraging entrepreneurship prioritizing breadwinner women, developing infrastructures such as water supply and power grids, building roads, constructing schools and increasing educational spaces, promoting health for all, granting non-repayable loans and insurance especially in less developed areas and regions are of the priorities of the charity foundation.
Source: Tehran Times
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