Safer schools could be in the future for earthquake-prone Central and Western China and other at-risk areas. Chinese officials stated they would invest more than $1 million and three years in a project retrofitting unsafe school buildings, according to a Reuters report last week.
Thousands of school children are believed—an official count has never been released—to have perished when shoddily-built schools collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake last May. Many parents protested openly, claiming the surfeit of safety was the result of corrupt officials and lackadaisical building practices. In some places, such as Dujiangyan, schools completely collapsed while surrounding buildings were unharmed.
Demonstrations by grieving parents were continually quashed by police, especially as China prepared for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, according to multiple news reports (New York Times, National Public Radio, The Guardian, among others). In some cases, parents were offered the equivalent of nearly $9,000 if they agreed not to speak about the condition of the schools. Now, it seems, the government is taking a different social tack.
"The safety of school buildings directly relates to the safety of teachers and students, and is related to social harmony and stability," Reuters quotes from the official Chinese statement, which it said was available on the Education Ministry's website.
Jolie Breeden is the lead editor and science communicator for Natural Hazards Center publications. She writes and edits for Research Counts; the Quick Response, Mitigation Matters, Public Health, and Weather Ready Research Award report series; as well as for special projects and publications. Breeden graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.