The number of children attending municipal-run elementary schools in the disaster-stricken Tohoku region has fallen by almost 7,000 compared with a year ago, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.
The number of children attending municipal-run elementary schools in the disaster-stricken Tohoku region has fallen by almost 7,000 compared with a year ago, an Asahi Shimbun survey shows.
Figures were compiled on the basis of pre-March 11, 2011, estimates up to Feb. 1.
In the case of Fukushima Prefecture, where thousands of people were forced to evacuate because of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, some 6,000 children are no longer attending elementary schools there.
The Asahi Shimbun sent questionnaires to education boards of all 127 municipalities in the northern prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
A total of 300,696 children attended municipal elementary schools in February this year, fewer by 6,961 than the total estimated by the municipalities before the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Compared with the number of pupils as of May 1 last year, as shown in the school basic survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, only 375 more children attended schools in their municipalities in February.
In Iwate Prefecture, there were 69,148 children, 202 fewer than the pre-earthquake estimates, while in Miyagi Prefecture the number fell by 820 to 124,081.
Fukushima Prefecture stood out with 5,939 fewer children compared with an estimated 113,406 a year ago.
More than half of the municipalities in the prefecture, 33 of 59, responded that numbers had fallen from pre-earthquake estimates.
In the Futaba-gun district, where most of its eight villages and towns are located within the no-entry zone of the Fukushima nuclear plant, there were only 1,417 pupils, or 35 percent, compared with the pre-quake estimate of 4,011.
Of the eight municipalities, Naraha, Futaba and Katsurao were forced to suspend or shut down schools after the reactor meltdowns and had no children as of Feb. 1.
The 900 pupils who would have attended the closed schools have been taking classes in their respective evacuation destinations.
In Namie, where about 1,100 pupils would have attended six elementary schools in town, only one school has been operating, borrowing a classroom at an elementary school in neighboring Nihonmatsu in the same prefecture.
Only 31 children are taking classes there now.