Workers are laying the foundation of a school building in Saitai County of Mianyang City of quake-hit Sichuan Province. [File photo]

Safe place

Statistics from the Sichuan provincial education department showed that 3,340 schools needed to be rebuilt after the earthquake. As of last Friday, 1,937 schools were under construction, about 58 percent of the total. Construction of another 278 schools has been completed, 8.3 percent of the total.

Under national regulations, new schools should be able to resist quakes of up to 8.0 on the Richter scale. Some schools chose to make the buildings even stronger, like the Zundao middle school in Mianzhu. That three-story school building, sponsored by real estate developer Vanke group, cost more than 10 million yuan.

"In normal school buildings, about 50 to 60 kilograms of steel were used in each square meter," said Peng Xingkui, general manager of the Xindi Construction company.

But in Zundao, they used more than 100 kg of reinforcing steel bars, each as thick as 25 millimeters in diameter, he said.

Steel plates and rubber were interlaced in the walls, where they will function like springs. These structures "serve as a cushion when a quake hits," said Peng. He added that the "cushion" could last for 70 years and was replaceable.

After the 1,271 students moved into the new building, they experienced several aftershocks. "Gradually, fewer students panicked," said Yang Xingquan, headmaster of the Zundao Middle School. "To them, the school has become a safe place," he said.

Juyuan Middle School in Dujiangyan City was one of the worst-hit schools in the quake, where nearly 300 students were killed. Parents of the dead students have staged several protests over building quality.

Xu Maohui, whose 15-year-old daughter was killed, found wooden sticks in the pillars of the toppled old building.

But this time, said an unidentified official at the construction site, "we have 38 steel bars in each pillar in the new building, almost twice as many steel bars as used in ordinary buildings."

In addition, L-shaped buttress walls about 2m wide were built at each turn of the stairs.

Lessons from disaster

At a meeting last year presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, the amended the Law on Precautions Against Earthquake and Relief of Disaster was passed. It takes effect on May 1 this year.

According to the law, schools and hospitals must be designed to stand strong earthquakes. School buildings should stand quakes of at least 8.0.

The Red Cross Society of China has published guidebooks for students, telling them how to survive disasters. These books were first used in Sichuan on April 2.

"These children will tell their parents what they learn," said Liu Ping, assistant to the director of the society's training center. "In this way, more people would come to realize the importance of emergency escape and the skills to help each other," she said.

However, having schools in Sichuan reopen might be the paramount goal.

Sichuan Province has pledged to have 95 percent of the students back in school buildings, rather than tents or prefabricated structures, before the end of this year. All students should be in regular school buildings by next spring.

Construction of the Beichuan Middle School is to start on May 12, the first anniversary of the quake, and the school is scheduled to be in use next September.

The new, 200-million-yuan building, which can hold 5,000 students, was sponsored by overseas Chinese from around the globe. It was designed by staff at renowned universities like Qinghua University, the University of Hong Kong, Tongji University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Construction worker Song Guobin hopes his younger son, 3-year-old Wang Haoyu, can study in a safe building. "Now that his brother is dead, he carries all my hopes," Song said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2009)