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China moves to replace weak school buildings

LOCAL governments across China have been urged to replace weak school buildings with more quake-resistent ones in three to five years and ensure one desk and one chair per student.

The mandatory goals were set in a Wednesday circular in which the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission raised a series of requirements to improve primary and middle school education, especially that in impoverished regions.

The construction quality of rural school buildings has burst into the public spotlight since the massive Sichuan earthquake in May 2008. In the severely hit Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County alone, the quake razed over 80 percent of its schools and kindergartens, killing 1,584 students.

"Newly built school buildings should be able to cope with various disasters and their quake resistance should be higher than the average level," Wednesday's circular says.

The circular, with 20 minimum requirements, stipulates that one class should have no more than 66 students and boarding schools ensure one bed for each student.

In China's sparsely populated mountainous regions, long commutes between homes and schools force many children into boarding for a semester. They sometimes have to sleep together and are crammed into crowded classes as boarding facilities and teaching staff are inadequate.

While stressing that these requirements should be prioritized on local governments' agenda, the circular warns against building luxuriously equipped schools.




 

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