Sichuan Quake Relief

2008年12月25日20:21 新华网

http://news.sohu.com/20081225/n261426445.shtml

BEIJING, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) — The deadly 8.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted southwestern China’s Sichuan province in May damaged close to 14,000 schools in 159 counties in the province, a senior official said on Thursday.

Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, revealed the numbers during a briefing to the law-making body on the enforcement of the Law on Compulsory Education.

The 8.0-magnitude quake centered in Sichuan’s Wenchuan County left more than 69,000 people dead, 374,000 injured, 18,000 missing and millions homeless.

He did not disclose the casualties of students in the earthquake.

Many of the school buildings in the quake-affected areas needed to be rebuilt, Lu said, adding that many schools in the central and the western part of the country were still in poor condition.

He noted that after the earthquake, many school buildings in neighboring Gansu province were severely damaged, but their rebuilding were not covered in the government’s post-quake rebuilding budget.

According to Lu, 2.5 percent of China’s primary and middle school buildings were in poor conditions in 2007. More than 90 percent of those “risky” school buildings were located in the country’s rural areas.

Twenty percent of the primary school buildings and 11 percent of the middle school buildings were “risky” in southwestern Yunnan province as in 2007, he said, citing figures from the Ministry of Education.

Fire risks, traffic safety and hygiene also posed threats to many primary and middle schools in the country due to lack of safety education, Lu added.

Lu urged authorities to add reinforcement measures to all school buildings in the quake-hit areas and to conduct a comprehensive safety check on all primary and middle schools in the rural areas across the country.

Local governments should renovate all school buildings to meet anti-quake criteria “at a proper time”, Lu suggested.

He also urged for central and local governments to grant more funds to help middle and primary schools– especially those in the central and western rural areas — renovate their school buildings and raise safety education among students and teachers.

China had already stipulated in July this year that school facilities must observe higher quake-proof standards than common buildings in the same area.

新华网北京12月25日电 （记者周婷玉、陈菲）全国人大常委会副委员长路甬祥25日向全国人大常委会作义务教育法执法检查报告时说，这次汶川特大地震对灾区学校造成严重破坏，相当部分校舍需要重建。据四川省统计，共有159个县近1．4万所学校受灾，其中义务教育学校和完全中学占91％。

他还指出，目前中西部地区农村学校的危房比例仍然较高。据教育部反映，2007年，全国普通中小学危房面积占普通中小学校舍面积总数的2．48％，其中90％分布在中西部地区农村。云南省小学、初中危房比例最高，分别达到20％和11％。甘肃省甘南受灾地区学校校舍受损也很严重，其中不少校舍没有列入国家资助的灾区中小学校舍维修加固资金项目，而地方财政困难，难以进行修缮。另外，一些学校的安全教育还没有落实，在消防、交通、卫生等方面也存在着安全隐患。

路甬祥介绍，新义务教育法实施后，各级政府部门在严格学校选址规划、完善校舍设计和编制建设标准、提高校舍维修改造资金测算标准、严格学校安全监管、维护学校周边秩序等方面加强了工作。2008年7月实施的《建筑工程抗震设防分类标准》，提高了学校建筑的抗震设防标准，要求比当地一般建筑抗震设防烈度提高一度，这将对保障校舍安全具有促进作用。

为进一步加强学校安全建设，执法检查报告建议，加快全面排查农村中小学校舍安全情况的进度，当前特别要做好受汶川特大地震影响的地区校舍的维修加固工作。同时，各地政府对未达到抗震要求的所有校舍，应适时制定规划予以改造，使之逐步达到防震标准。

报告中还建议，应适当提高农村中小学校舍维修改造经费补助标准，中央财政应重点对中西部地区农村中小学校舍抗震加固工作加大支持力度；应当进一步健全学校安全管理制度，完善处置突发事件应急机制，定期开展安全教育和应急演练活动，不断提高广大师生的自我保护意识与防范危害的能力。