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The massive earthquake that struck in Sichuan Province on May 12 killed more than 70,000 people. A large percentage of the victims were children who died trapped in their schools.
In some instances, whole schools crumbled with teachers and students inside, while surrounding buildings remained standing. More than four million buildings were affected by the quake, including 7,000 classrooms.
Chinese government admits some faults
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Many parents blamed the Chinese government for poorly constructing schools. |
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Nearly four months after the quake, Ma Zongjin, the chairman of an official committee of experts assessing the damage, has announced that poor school construction was at least partially to blame for the devastation. He confessed that, “recently, we’ve built school buildings relatively fast, so some construction problems might exist.”
Although this is the first time an official of the Chinese government has admitted any wrongdoing associated with the earthquake, many parents and families have been suspicious for months.
Following the quake there were widespread protests in China as grieving families demanded analysis of school structures. Chinese officials failed to meet with families and instead sent police in riot gear to break up meetings. Some parents say they were forced to sign agreements that they would not file charges of wrongful death against the government in exchange for just a few thousand dollars.
Chinese media reported that the government promised more than $147 billion in aid to rebuild schools in the most devastated areas as part of a three-year project.
International problem
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Schools have collapsed in countries around the world, including Pakistan, where 17,000 children died in schools during a 2005 earthquake. |
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China is not the only country suffering from failing school infrastructure. The Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, an international institute that provides statistics and economic data to governments, stated in its most recent report that millions of school-aged children are at risk across the world.
In recent years, there have been other deadly school collapses in Italy, Algeria, Morocco and Turkey. Most recently, at least 17,000 children died in their schools when an earthquake struck the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan in 2005.
Schools in the U.S.
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The New York Times found that 1,300 Oregon schools had a high or very high risk of collapsing during an earthquake. |
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The dangers of shoddy school construction are not only in distant, poor countries; states and communities in the U.S. are assessing school safety and looking for cost-effective solutions.
The New York Times reports that a study that 1,300 of Oregon's schools, housing 340,000 students, had a high or very high risk of collapse during a substantial earthquake. Many scientists believe that an earthquake could happen at any time in Oregon and that it could be 32 times more powerful than the one that shattered China's Sichuan province.
Other areas of the U.S. are more prepared. Directly south of Oregon, California has worked to protect its schools and students.
Following the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933 that completely destroyed 70 schools, Californians passed the Field Act calling for strict standards for new school construction. A few years later, the Garrison Act required all schools built before 1936 to be retrofitted to conform to the higher safety standards. No teacher or student has since died in a California school that was reinforced.
Most experts agree that retrofitting schools is a necessary and inexpensive process, maybe as little as a 4 percent increase in funding. The question is whether states and local governments make inspections and reconstruction a priority before the next quake.
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After H1N1-related school closures in the last flu season, local schools have lowered the severity of their response and are focusing on preventative action that does not interrupt education.
