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Quake-hit county struggles to restart classes

Xinhua, September 13, 2012

• A family take lunch in the quake-hit area in Yiliang County, Yunan Province.

  
  
  

  Struggling to snatch the chance to enter university to change her family's poor rural life, the long days of awaiting resettlement worry Chi.

  It's not an easy task for the poor mountainous county to fully resume classes within a short period of time, according to Liu Lehua, deputy head of the education bureau of Zhaotong city, which administers Yiliang county.

  A total of 86 school buildings collapsed in last Friday's earthquake, which killed 81 people. Some 257 schools out of the 357 in the county were damaged in the quake, which measured 5.7 on the Richter scale. The schools can only be opened after security is guaranteed, Liu said.

  At a primary school of Luozehe township, one of the hardest-hit areas near the epicenter, Cai Jihong, 43, is worried another strong aftershock will topple the already seriously damaged school building and affect the 28 tents set up for the villagers not far from it.

  The school was built on a hillside and there is little flat land on which to set up tents. A total of 510 students are waiting for calls to resume class at various tents in villages and towns.

  The education department recommended affected schools with fewer than 50 students rent houses to resume classes. For those with more than 50 students, they were recommended to set up prefabricated houses, said Liu Lehua.

  Those schools with minor damages can be reopened after security checks and reinforcement, he added.

  But for schools on the hillside, there has not been enough space to establish prefabricated houses. The only way is to set up temporary houses elsewhere, but it is not convenient for students living scattered on the mountains to come, said Cai Jihong, a Chinese-language teacher of Luozehe Primary School.

  As schools generally have larger open space, some are taken as settlements for the quake-affected residents.

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