Chinese education ministry orders school security to be strengthened

The Ministry of Education has issued a circular instructing schools and education authorities across China to intensify their security measures, after a string of school attacks.

The ministry said Tuesday in a statement on its website that the notice was issued Monday after a high-level meeting on school safety, in which senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang said ensuring school safety was a "major political task."

A work team on school safety was also set up on Monday, the statement said.

The circular orders schools to employ sufficient security personnel, equip them with necessary protective gear, and install security facilities.

It also calls for stronger security patrols in and around school campuses at the beginning and end of school days, and in schools situated in risk-prone communities.

In particular, it directs boarding schools in rural areas to intensify patrols at night.

Education authorities must work with police to comprehensively screen all campuses and their surrounding areas for security risks, it says.

Schools must draw up regulations and rules to make every school employee responsible for school security, it continues.

It also says China will seek to establish a school bus system that suits the realities of China.

China has recently witnessed a surge in school attacks. The worst occurred in Nanping City, Fujian Province, when a man killed eight elementary school children in March.

In the latest case, five kindergarten class children and a teacher were injured on Friday when a man attacked them with an iron hammer before killing himself at a school in Shandong Province.

Source: Xinhua