(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-14 07:29

China's worst earthquake for 30 years brought with it a bitter lesson that we must learn even as we carry on with immediate and all-out rescue efforts.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor that rocked southwestern China in mid-afternoon on Monday has devastated a region comprising small cities and towns, leaving more than 12,000 people dead by press time and more missing.

Given the awful power of this seismic disaster, it is not surprising, though sad, that most structures in some of the towns and small cities near its epicenter have been leveled.

However, it is particularly tragic that early reports of casualties from quake-hit areas mention schools as places with the most fatalities.

Several schools were reported to have collapsed, killing tens of students and trapping hundreds of children in the rubble. And in some areas, deaths in schools even accounted for the majority of reported fatalities.

The suffering of students in those flattened schools surely makes it a compelling task for rescuers to intensify their efforts at all costs.

During these difficult moments, all the people should find strength in unity in order to overcome this great natural disaster.

Tragic though the circumstances are, we cannot afford not to raise uneasy questions about the structural quality of school buildings. If subsequent investigations indicate that most of the school buildings collapsed because of their poor-quality construction or the builders' shoddy compliance with building rules, we must make a firm resolve to do away with such man-made factors that are easily neglected in normal times but which prove disastrous during an emergency.

The nation has reached a consensus on the need to increase government expenditure on education. The central government has also made more efforts to promote the development of education.

Between 2003 and 2007, 2.43 trillion yuan of national revenue was spent on education, an increase of 126 percent over the previous five years. The central government's spending on education increased 76 percent year-on-year to 107.6 billion yuan last year.

Yet, the deadly collapses of school buildings show that such funds either remain inadequate or are allocated too slowly for local schools to renovate their buildings so that they can withstand major quakes.

The breakdown of the electricity grid during the severest winter in 50 years, that hit central and southern China early this year, triggered a much-needed overhaul of this key infrastructure.

The collision of two trains last month in Shandong Province also justified a national inspection on the safety of the railway system.

Now, the collapses of school buildings should necessitate a thorough examination of the actual gaps in education expenditures as well as their utilization within and beyond the quake-hit regions.

(China Daily 05/14/2008 page8)