Roundup:Children in central Italy back to school, two weeks after massive quake

Hundreds of children in central Italy's quake-hit areas returned to school on Monday, two weeks after a latest and massive tremor hit Umbria and Marche regions.

Pupils and teachers in the towns of Norcia, San Benedetto, Teramo, Cascia, and many smaller centers in the mountainous Valnerina valley, between the cities of Macerata and Perugia, met again for the first time since the major event.

In a few towns, the reopening was postponed to Nov. 21. Everywhere, lessons took place inside emergency housing units or prefabs.

School buildings all across the affected areas have been variously damaged by the quake, if not destroyed, and Italian firefighters and civil protection officials were carrying out safety assessment checks.

Primary, secondary, and high schools will have to share the same spaces, and classes will be held in turns in the mornings and afternoons during the school year, the Ministry of Education stated.

Overall, the pupils involved in the reopening on Monday looked relieved. "Coming back to school means seeing my mates again, and, most of all, trying to get back to normal life," Ansa news agency quoted an unnamed high-school girl in Norcia as saying.

The same areas in central Italy's regions of Umbria, Marche, and Lazio have been struck by four quakes in a little more than two months.

A first earthquake of magnitude 6.0 on the Richter scale hit on Aug. 24, killing 298 people, injuring 400, and leaving thousands displaced.

Two further tremors struck on Oct. 26, at a short distance, and carrying a magnitude of 5.4 and 5.9 respectively. Some people were injured in this event, but no serious casualties were reported.

Finally, a 6.5-magnitude quake hit near Norcia in the morning of Oct. 30. Again, no victims were reported, since local residents had already been evacuated after the previous events, but damages were very extensive, and many famous historic buildings were destroyed.

This latest was the most powerful quake in Italy since 1980, according to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

Some 220 schools in 122 different towns, and at least 13,000 students, were overall affected by the four seismic events, Education Minister Stefania Giannini told Rome-based Il Messaggero newspaper earlier this month.

Secondary and high-school pupils in the areas affected by the Aug. 24 quake will be provided free school books for the next three years, thanks to an agreement signed between the Ministry of Education and the Italian Publishers Association (AIE).

The provision might be widened in order to include schools affected by the following three quakes, AIE said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the central Italy has kept trembling. Thousands of aftershocks have been registered since Oct. 30, including a 4.0-magnitude temblor at 2.33 a.m. local time on Monday, INGV data showed. Enditem