Students in several areas hard hit by the Lushan earthquake, including Baoxing county and Lushan county, returned to classes on Wednesday, five days after the quake killed 196 people and injured 11,470.
The local government ordered high school students, especially 12th-graders who will write the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, in June, to resume classes. In Baoxing, 186 12th-graders were asked to resume studies in their original classrooms on the fourth floor of their school, which caused worries among students. "I'm happy but I'm also worried that an aftershock could happen anytime and cause casualties," Zong Xiu, a student at a senior high school, told the Global Times.
Zong walked softly, saying she is afraid a heavy step might cause a new round of aftershocks.
"The classroom is at the top of the building and I am afraid I won't have enough time to escape if an aftershock happens," a student who asked not to be named, told the Global Times.
School officials said the classroom building is safe. "Except the dormitory, all other buildings, which were rebuilt by the Hainan provincial government after the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, remain safe for students, according to an inspection by architecture experts after the quake," Zhu Shenyue, an official from the local education bureau, told the Global Times.
There was no damage to the main structure of the buildings and a lot of people took shelter in the buildings after the quake.
Zhu said local students in other grades might resume their classes in several weeks.
The sight of students reading has brought some comfort to residents, who say they are happy to see them studying again.
In Lushan, 12th-graders were sent to a university in Chengdu, where they will be provided with a better environment to prepare for the gaokao. Students in other grades are taking classes in tents and as their school buildings have not been declared safe.
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