EMERGENCY drills would be conducted at schools on a regular basis to improve campus safety and safety awareness, yesterday s Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.
Training in emergency skills could become mandatory at schools. The government had spent 3 billion yuan (US$450 million) on school safety this year, said Guo Yurong, head of the city s education bureau, on a call-in radio program Tuesday.
Meanwhile, regulating kindergartens would be a focus for the government over the next five years, providing more financial support, investment and awards to assist the development of private kindergartens.
According to the plan, investment by the city government in kindergartens will account for 5 percent of total education investment of about 800 million yuan to 1 billion yuan a year. This can help kindergartens improve their quality and reduce tuition fees, Guo said.
She said the education bureau was working with the city commission of development and reform on regulating tuition fees and charges to prevent kindergartens from overcharging parents.
Guo also answered questions relating to non-hukou students taking the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) and reconstruction of village schools in Bao an and Longgang districts.
There are now about 820,000 students attending city primary and junior middle schools, of which about 570,000 are non-hukou holders. According to government policy, students with hukou from Guangdong Province can take the NCEE in Shenzhen, but those with hukou from other parts of China have to return to their hukou-registered city for their examinations. This is because the NCEE system in each province has different examination papers and quotas for universities. I m afraid it will take some time to improve the system, Guo said.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
