CHIANG RAI, 16 May 2014 – Students at many schools in Chiang Rai province had to commence their first day of the school term in makeshift classrooms on Thursday, with their main school buildings damaged by the previous week’s earthquake.
At Thanthong Witthaya School in quake-rattled Mae Lao district, classes were being held in the space under the old school building, where the teachers and students were laboring to ensure that the bare necessities, such as chalk boards, were in working order. The main school building suffered massive structural damage from the magnitude 6.3 earthquake and the aftershocks that followed, and has been indefinitely closed.
According to Ekkachai Phapchai, the director of Education Area 3, which encompasses schools in 5 districts of Chiang Rai, said around 30 schools out of a total of 184 have been damaged by the tremors.
