The schools have been shut since a tsunami lashed Java's densely-populated south coast a week ago, killing more than 600 people and destroying homes, businesses and boats.

Thousands of children are still living in emergency shelters, their families too frightened to return home. Schools will abandon traditional lessons to help children get over the disaster this week, officials said.

"Schools, from primary to senior high school level, have reopened today (Monday), but these first few days are not focused on academic teachings as the emphasis is on trying to allay the trauma of the children," said Wawan Ariffien, head of the education office in the worst-hit Ciamis district.

Ariffien said that attendance appeared good for high schools but that fewer pupils had turned up at primary schools.

"Some of the parents are not allowing their children to return to school yet, fearing further tsunamis," he told AFP.

"But teachers... have been personally assuring the parents, fetching the children from their shelters and taking them to the schools using cars or motorcycles," Ariffien said.

In five primary schools in Pangandaran -- a beach resort area that bore the brunt of the waves -- the number of pupils could be counted on one hand as families remained traumatized, the state-run Antara agency reported.

In Cimerak, one of the hardest hit villages, all that remains of the local primary schools are their floors and foundations, so lessons have been moved to other schools a few kilometres (miles) inland, he said.

At another devastated village, Cidadap, where only the floor of the primary school remains, classes have been shifted to the local village hall.

The district education office was delivering aid in the form of school uniforms, books, schoolbags and writing implements to thousands of pupils, Ariffien said. Ten trauma counselling teams have also been deployed.

A representative of Dik's FM, a radio station operated by the Ciamis education office, said that calls for students and teachers to return to school on Monday had been broadcast over the radio daily.

The national disaster agency released new toll figures that showed at least 628 people had been killed in the disaster, unleashed by a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake off Java.

Some 78,446 others have been displaced, the figures showed.

District authorities continued to call on refugees staying in shelters on higher ground to return home if their houses were undamaged.

West Java Governor Danny Setiawan said at the weekend that it appeared almost all of the refugees still had homes.

"We are urging people to begin to return home and assure them that the conditions are now safe again," district spokesman Wasdi bin Umri said.

He added that the authorities were registering the true number of displaced persons.

"For these people, the district authorities will provide more permanent temporary shelters where they will be able to await the reconstruction of their home or resettlement elsewhere," Wasdi said.

He said a massive operation involving at least 3,000 soldiers, police, local officials and volunteers was continuing to clear debris from the coast, while the search for at least 62 people pushed on.

The tragedy follows the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed the lives of an estimated 168,000 Acehnese in Indonesia.

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