Chinese Authorities Present New Ways to School Children for Security Education

School safety has been a major topic in China since several schools experienced severe attacks aimed at their students this spring. a campaign sponsored by three different organizations is promoting safety education to prevent more of these incidents from happening.

Our reporter Chen Zhe has more.
Chinese government has launch nationwide campaigns to beef up security in schools throughout the country after a series of deadly school stabbings this year.

One such campaign sponsored by the China National Committee for the Wellbeing of Youth, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the All-China Women's Federation is distributing videos containing educational programs to teach young school students how to protect themselves and to prevent harmful injuries.

Li Leigang, deputy director of Career Development Center of China National Committee for the Wellbeing of Youth, said the campaign involves three steps.

"The first step is to send educational DVDs and books to primary schools, middle schools and kindergartens in 50 different cities with a total worth of 10 million yuan. The second step is to have safety experts conduct school security lectures. The third is to survey schoolchildren's parents regarding security concerns."

To ensure that all the children in the participating schools receive the information, sponsors will send the materials to every student's home.

Liu Jiang, a parent of a secondary school student in Beijing said the new campaign is a good approach toward school security.

"I think this is a very good thing to prepare prevention work beforehand so that children would be more conscious about self-protection. I have a daughter, so I am have more concerns toward her safety."

Li said it is society's responsibility to maintain school security, not just the educators.

"Maintaining the safety and peace in schools is a major focus of education, and it is also the responsibility of the entire society. Studies from both home and abroad show that popularizing safety education in schools is an effective way to protect students from potential harm. The causes of school attacks vary, so we'd better learn to prevent rather than calling for help after it's happened. That's also the major point we are emphasizing in this campaign."

The sponsors hope that by reaching school children directly, students will become more aware of school safety and safeguard against potential harm.

For CRI, I am Chen Zhe.