Schools will bear legal responsibilities if students suffer physical harm on campus due to neglect or lack of prevention measures, said officials of the Beijing Committee of Education on Monday.

According to a statute that the committee made public recently, if schools are proven liable for students' physical harm, they will have to pay compensation up to 200,000 yuan (someUS$24,000) a year for each injured student, said Du Songpeng, deputy director with the committee.

Many schools lack effective security measures and affected students have difficulty gaining financial compensation. The statute is aimed to resolve such problems and disputes, said Du.

The regulation is to be enacted on Jan. 1, 2004.

The Beijing Committee of Education and Beijing Branch of Ping An Insurance Company signed an agreement valid from Sept. 1 that allows the insurance company to cover schools' liability.

The agreement covers public kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools. So far, the insurance company has paid for over 20 cases.

Du Songpeng said the education authority is considering the feasibility of applying the policy to private schools.

With the regulation focused on prevention, the regulation specifies measures that school administrations should follow to avoid injuries. As indicated by the regulation, fire fighting equipment should be installed in compliance with national security requirements and priority should be given to students' personal safety during classes or extracurricular activities.

Sources with the Beijing Committee of Education show that more than 360 student injury cases occurred during the past three years and disputes arose in 50 per cent of these cases because of the lack of applicable government policy or regulation. As a result, resolution of some of the cases was postponed up to two years.

As of the end of 2002, Beijing had 2,845 elementary schools and middle schools with a total enrollment of 1.58 million, according to official statistics.

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