500 High School Students Having Difficulty Going to School in Kumamoto

Kumamoto, May 4 (Jiji Press)--Some 500 high school students in Kumamoto Prefecture are facing difficulty commuting to school as roads and railways have been severed by a series of powerful earthquakes and a massive landslide in the village of Minamiaso in the southwestern Japan prefecture, it was learned Wednesday. According to the Kumamoto prefectural education board and other sources, some 300 students at 15 public high schools and 200 students at 14 private high schools commute between the Aso region, including Minamiaso, and the city of Kumamoto. National Route 57 was heavily damaged by the landslide caused by a 7.3-magnitude quake on April 16, the main shock in the Kumamoto quakes, in the village. The quake also resulted in the collapse of the Aso Ohashi bridge on a nearby road. Train operations on a section of the Hohi Line of Kyushu Railway Co., better known as JR Kyushu, which connects Kumamoto and the adjacent prefecture of Oita, have been paralyzed, with the operator having no prospect for when the operations can be resumed. Services on another railroad in the Aso region, the Takamori Line of Minamiaso Railway Co., have been fully suspended. It is expected to take more than a year for the railway's full recovery. Under the circumstances, many students at high schools that have already resumed classes have to stay home. In Minamiaso, where there is no high school, most of some 300 students go to schools outside the village by train or car. At a reopened public high school in the neighboring town of Ozu, about 30 of 50 students from Minamiaso have been absent due to the lack of transportation. As more schools are set to be reopened next week after Japan's Golden Week holiday period, affected municipalities and schools are considering ways to support such students. The Minamiaso government and other local authorities have already decided to run buses on four diversion routes to bring students to and from schools. END