Vow to step up school building improvements
Print Edition
China’s Ministry of Education has vowed to step up strengthening work on primary and middle school buildings, calling the project a “long-term and arduous” mission.
It noted that old buildings are still in use and that natural disasters have taken their toll, creating new damage.
The ministry’s announcements, carried in a statement yesterday, echoed a Tuesday State Council circular that urged a building safety procedure for primary and middle schools that would encompass annual checks, emergency warnings, building information disclosure and risk-averse management.
According to the circular, local government chiefs will be held responsible for any casualties caused by unsafe structures, and the fund to construct and repair rural school buildings should be jointly secured by local and central governments.
Figures from yesterday’s statement show that some 375,000 schools across the country with 2.17 million buildings have undergone safety checks since a safety project was launched in 2009. The project saw buildings at 140,000 schools reinforced.
According to the ministry, school buildings covered in the project have endured 32 earthquakes measured at magnitude 5 or above since last year, and many even served as temporary shelters and warehouses for relief materials.
But the statement also noted that some old school buildings incompatible with current standards are still in use, and “given the enormous scale of our country’s primary and middle schools and their weak foundations, a thorough regulation is urgently needed.”
“During the construction of school buildings, government principals and key officials supervising various stages must sign a safety paper, and they will be held responsible in case of building quality issues, even if they have retired,” the ministry said.
The document says county governments should collect information about every school and its buildings within their jurisdictions, and submit the records to provincial-level governments for public release.
It urged local governments to step up repairs, reinforcement, reconstruction and expansion until all schools meet national standards.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
