School children here will begin classes on Aug 25, pushing back the usual start date by 10 days, Zhouqu education bureau officials said on Sunday.

Four schools were damaged by the unexpected landslide on Aug 8. Among them, only a cracked shell of a building remains of Chengguan No.1 Primary School - all of its classrooms and teaching facilities have been destroyed. The school has nearly 1,700 students and 68 teachers.

Liu Dongjiang, head of the school, said they are still trying to count the number of injured and dead students. Six teachers and one security guard at the school are still missing.

Lei Han, 11, who studies at Chengguan No.2 Primary School, which is still under two meters of water, said the students fully understand the delay. But children have already started studying on their own in tents and in their homes to prepare for the next semester.

Because of a lake formed by the mudslide, most of the county seat of Zhouqu in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Gansu Province, is still inundated.

The death toll reached 1,248 as of 4 pm Sunday with 496 still missing. More than 1,500 survivors are living in tents or school rooms while 8,300 have sought shelter with relatives and friends, according to the officials of Gannan Tibetan autonomous prefecture.

With students dispersed all over the county seat, schools are having a difficult time trying to figure out the number of missing.

"The schools in the county seat suffered huge losses and we are busy reporting to Gansu Education Department for help and financial support," said Yao Qingyuan, director of the Zhouqu county education bureau.

Textbooks at bookstores were severely damaged, making it difficult to provide goods and materials for boarding schools in the county. Two undamaged schools had been designated as shelters for survivors.

The General Administration of Press and Publications has ordered new textbooks be printed and shipped to Zhouqu before Friday.