Students happy to return to school in quake-hit Türkiye

By Cebrail Caymaz, Muslum Etgu and Yasin Dikme

SANLIURFA / KILIS, Türkiye (AA) - Elif Suheda Kerkut, a fourth-grade student in Türkiye's earthquake-hit region, returned to school on Wednesday.

"If there is an earthquake, we will practice what we learned in the drill," she said. "But I hope there will be no more earthquakes."

Some 52,000 students returned to school in the Kilis province, where education was suspended due to the deadly earthquakes that rattled northern Syria and southern Türkiye on Feb.6.

At the Afife Kecik Primary School, students played games and walked in the garden with their friends.

"We play with our friends. We are comfortable here," Kerkut said, adding she was happy to be back.

Teachers are trying to engage the children outdoors to overcome their trauma of the earthquake.

“Teachers carried out activities in school gardens to rehabilitate students, provide psychosocial support, and eliminate indoor phobias,” Kilis Provincial Director of National Education Mehmet Emin Akkurt told Anadolu.

In Sanliurfa province where classes also resumed on Wednesday, National Education Provincial Director Fevzi Kurt, Governor Salih Ayhan, teachers and students attended the back-to-school ceremony at the Yunus Emre Borsa Istanbul Primary School.

Ayhan said: "We are a nation that has overcome many difficulties throughout history with our faith, strength and unity. We will build our beautiful days by sticking together again. Let us never forget our strength."

Ayhan added that schools are not only a place of education but also a place to fulfill social and emotional needs.

The death toll from the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye has risen to 45,089, the country’s disaster management agency, AFAD, said early Wednesday.

On Feb. 6, magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

More than 13 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes.

*Writing by Anna Cecilia Canatan in Ankara