TEHRAN – Some 1,195 schools have been damaged during the US-Israeli attacks on the country, a majority of them are planned to be reconstructed for the next school year that will kick off on September 22.

The scale of destruction in these schools vary from five to 80 percent, and twenty schools that are totally destroyed will take longer to be rebuilt, ISNA quoted Hamidreza Khanmohammadi, the director of the Organization for Development, Renovation, and Equipping Schools, as saying.

The reconstruction of the whole damaged schools will require a budget of 40 trillion rials (around 24 million dollars), Khanmohammadi noted. 

Currently some 500 schools are being repaired, he said, adding that half of the whole damaged schools will be ready to use by the end of the week. 

The official expressed hope that benefactors would contribute to 50 percent of the costs, the same as they have always done.

He went on to say that two schools will be built in the memory of the students martyred on February 28 in a US missile attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in the city of Minab.

At least 168 girls, most of them aged between 7 and 12, were killed and dozens more injured during the attack.

The education ministry has launched a campaign, titled Minab Angels, to build the two schools. The campaign provides a great opportunity for benefactors to denounce the illegal attacks and make contributions to build the schools, Khanmohammadi said.

In this regard, Education Minister Alireza Kazemi has said the school should be built again with a special design in order to be a symbol of science and altruism. It should be turned into a memorial to commemorate the martyred students, IRNA reported.

Kazemi has written separate letters to Salim bin Mohammed Al-Malik, the director general of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Khaled El-Enany; the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and Catherine Russell, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), urging them to condemn the US-Israeli attacks to educational and cultural organizations in the country.

Since the outbreak of the war, more than 240 students and teachers have been martyred and 183 students and teachers have been injured. 

Shajareh Tayyebeh, an elementary school will be reconstructed by benevolent people and will be registered as a national heritage.

MT /MG