Almost all public schools in quake-ravaged areas of the northern Noto Peninsula have resumed classes, but daily life is anything but back to normal for many children.

The six municipalities there suffered the most damage from the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck Ishikawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day.

With the exception of seven schools in the city of Wajima, all other elementary and junior high schools in the region had resumed classes as of Feb. 2.

However, not all students are back at their old schools. Scores of kids decided to evacuate and are now temporarily enrolled elsewhere.

Others who returned to their old school have been gripped by fears of another big earthquake hitting and separating them from their families.

In many cases, children have to trudge past collapsed structures to get to school, a reminder that dozens of people died in the temblor.

Junior high schools in Nanao arranged for school counselors to meet with all students. In almost all cases, the students came across as profoundly affected by the disaster.

In Suzu and Noto, some of the schools where classes have resumed continue to be used as evacuation centers.

Schools in other municipalities sustained significant damage in the quake. Part of the ceiling collapsed at Anamizu Elementary School, so space was found at a junior high school in the same town so the children can attend classes.

Elementary schools in Shika and Nanao are also using classrooms in junior high schools in the same municipalities for the same reason.

But the elementary school in Nanao requires that pupils attend school on alternating days because there is not enough room to accommodate them all at once.

TRYING TO REMAIN ACTIVE

Wajima is the only municipality where not all schools have resumed classes.

To pass the time, 11-year-old Banri Okizaki like to play catch with his older brother, Eita, 18, a third-year student in senior high school who is planning to start work from April.

Banri’s school has not resumed classes and the playground that used to be the practice field for his baseball team is now being used as a parking lot for evacuees at the school and vehicles delivering relief supplies.

Some of his teammates have evacuated to Kanazawa, the prefectural capital, but Banri said: “I do not feel lonely because I still play online games with (my teammates). But I want to play baseball again with them as soon as possible.”

His father, Daisuke, 46, is trying to maintain a regular daily cycle by having his children sleep and rise early even though there are no classes yet.

Of the 160 or so children like Banri who had attended Fugeshi Elementary School, about 100 have already moved out of Wajima. The school has been holding 50-minute online classes daily to remain in touch with the students.

From Feb. 6, students at the elementary school will resume classes at Wajima High School, by using some of the classrooms there along with students from six other elementary and junior high schools in the city.

Once that starts, all schools in the six northern Noto municipalities will have resumed classes.

STUDENTS MOVING OUT

The Asahi Shimbun contacted the boards of education of the six municipalities as well as individual schools to ascertain how many students were actually attending.

Thirty-three schools in five municipalities had a total of 5,153 students enrolled, but 1,292, or 25.1 percent, were not attending school because they had either evacuated en masse or their families had evacuated after the quake.

Of those not returning to their original school, about 280 students were taking online classes, while another 100 or so were temporarily attending a school in the area they moved to because of the earthquake.

On Feb. 2, the Suzu municipal board of education responded to the Asahi survey on behalf of all 11 elementary and junior high schools in the city.

Of the total of 560 students registered as of December, about 300 were attending their old schools. Of the 260 or so not going to school, about 90 were taking online classes.

At least 80 students had already completed paperwork to formally move to another school, but that number could increase because a number of schools responded that other students had indicated an intention to move elsewhere.

(This article was written by Yukihito Takahama, Masayuki Takashima, Yoshika Uematsu, Asako Miyasaka, Kohei Kano and Hajime Ueno.)