Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Monday that around 50% of education facilities in the earthquake-hit areas of Sisak-Moslavina County were unusable and that work was under way to organise classes.

“There are 58 educational institutions in the area and there are 5,658 pupils in Glina, Petrinja and Sisak. So far 42 buildings have been inspected and nine are unusable, 11 are temporarily unusable, 22 are usable, so roughly 50% of the facilities cannot be used,” Fuchs said.

He said his ministry’s activities in the coming period would be directed towards organising classes for pupils and students, noting that some children and education workers had to leave their homes due to damage caused by the December 29 earthquake.

An analysis is underway of the needs for computer equipment and it will be replaced, he said, adding that the ministry would take over a part of the cost of accommodation in dormitories for all students with permanent residence in the quake-hit area.

He noted that the ministry has secured HRK 4.5 million from its budget to buy 20 sets of seismographs and 20 sets of accelerographs for the Faculty of Science seismological service.

Minister says team formed to planned restoration of historical buildings

Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Korzinek said that the historical centres of Sisak, Petrinja, Glina and Hrvatska Kostajnica as well as some 50 sacral buildings, including the Sisak cathedral, had been damaged in the earthquake.

She noted that a team had been formed to plan the reconstruction of the historical centres, notably in Petrinja, and that movable cultural heritage would be evacuated.

Obuljen Korzinek said that secular movable heritage would be stored at the Sisak Museum while the building of the Sisak Diocese would be used to store movable religious heritage.

The minister said that the systematic listing of damage would start on January 11 and last a week.

As for the local media, she said that buildings that used to house Radio Sisak and Radio Petrinja were not usable and that the two broadcasters had been given containers and had started to broadcast.