Call to establish new school safety assessment mechanism

There should be a transparent mechanism evaluating school safety conditions, and the system should involve education administration, professional assessment agencies and society, an article in the Beijing News states. Excerpts:

A stampede accident in a corridor in a primary school in Kunming, in Yunnan province, killed six students and injured 26 last Friday.

The school attributed the accident to two sponge mats used in physical education classes placed in the narrow corridor, which fell and blocked students’ path.

A number of stampede accidents occurring in China in recent years were caused by such carelessness, and a loophole-ridden safety system in the schools.

Unlike the other schools in towns and counties where such accidents have happened, the Mingtong School in Kunming is a provincial key model school famous for its model infrastructures.

Whenever such an accident occurs, the local, or national educational authority in some severe cases, requires all schools to strengthen their safety measures in a campaign-style rehabilitation activity. The teachers and school headmasters responsible for these accidents would be sacked.

After that, the school safety tends to fall on the deaf ears of an unthinking society yet again.

The government should draw lessons from the accident at a model school in the provincial capital of Kunming. There should be an effective school safety monitoring and assessment mechanism involving all relevant parties to avoid such tragedies.