The International Rescue Committee (IRC) on Monday said that a quarter of school-age children in Lebanon’s capital Beirut are at risk of missing school after last month’s port explosion.

“With 163 schools damaged by the Beirut explosion, at least 1 in 4 children in the city are now at risk of missing out on their education,” it said in a statement.

The IRC further clarified that these estimations are only based on Beirut’s port explosion and COVID-19 has not been taken into account.

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“Over 85,000 pupils were registered at the schools damaged by the blasts and it will take up to a year for the most severely damaged buildings to be repaired,” IRC added.

The slow speed of rebuilding structures, parents’ worries over the cost and safety of transport to alternative schools, and children helping their struggling families could also keep the children out of schools.

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“Overall, we are expecting to see far fewer children enrolled in schools this September and a high drop-out rate as the year progresses,” said IRC’s acting Lebanon director Mohammad Nasser.

The heavy explosion of a stock of ammonium nitrate at Beirut port on August 4 this year killed more than 190 people, injured thousands and destroyed buildings in surrounding residential areas.