Burma’s school year has started, but in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta the timetable and curriculum are as provisional as the livelihoods of countless parents, many of whom can’t afford to send their children to class.

Although all schools are open in Laputta town, which caught the full force of the cyclone, education is far from the minds of people who are trying to put their shattered lives back together.

An orphan and a nursemaid stay at a shelter as the non-governmental organization medical team arrived to treat them at a village outside Rangoon. (Photo: Reuters)

A trishaw owner said that although education is free he couldn’t afford the cost of clothing and books for his two children, who would have to stay at home instead of return to school.

Although his home had been badly damaged in the cyclone, he didn’t qualify for relief aid, he said. “It’s a daily struggle to survive.”

As the schools reopened, cyclone survivors who had sought refuge in the now-restored buildings were rehoused in camps, sometimes several miles away.

Around 500 schools in outlying villages are reportedly still too badly damaged to reopen. Villagers at Thin Gan Gyi, Pyin Htaung Kwin and Tha Pyay Chaung say that even when their schools are reconstructed there would be no teachers to staff them.

A resident of Ahyar Taw village said about 350 local people died when the school in which they were sheltering collapsed in the cyclone. The bodies had not yet been buried, he said.

One mother of two school-age children, sheltering in a refugee camp, said military officers came daily to urge her and others to return to their villages. “But I hear nothing from them about our children’s education program."

Adding to the problem is the existence of hundreds of children orphaned by the cyclone. A UNICEF official said the authorities reportedly gathered together 117 orphans from Laputta camps and relocated them in the compound of the Agricultural Institute of Myaung Mya Township.

People who care for the orphans are warned that they could face trafficking charges. "We are closely monitoring people from Rangoon and other big cities coming and adopting orphans here,” said an official at a Laputta refugee camp. “If we see them take the orphans without permission, they could be charged with trafficking."