news

Affected by Typhoon Gemi, a total of 110 schools in Chenzhou suffered varying degrees of damage to their buildings, facilities and equipment. The fall semester is about to start, how is the recovery of schools in the disaster-stricken areas? How should students in the disaster-stricken areas go to school?

On August 12, the reporter learned from the Chenzhou Municipal Education Bureau that the city has ensured the normal start of the fall semester through measures such as dredging and disinfection, school building repairs, paired assistance, emergency funding, and borrowing sites to ensure that no student drops out of school due to the disaster.

The dredging work of 37 schools in Zixing has been completed

Desilting and hauling. At Zhoumensi Middle School in Zixing City, 8 excavators and shovels are desilting, and 16 transport vehicles are queuing up to transport silt. Zhoumensi Middle School is one of the schools that was hit hardest by the disaster, with the highest thickness of silt exceeding 3 meters. In recent days, more than 200 armed police firefighters, support team members, and school teachers have formed a team to desilt the school's teaching buildings, canteens, playgrounds, etc., and 80% of the desilting work has been completed.

"Thinking about the school opening soon, we dare not delay for even a moment." Li Chunjiang, secretary of the Party branch of Mensi Town Middle School in Zixing Prefecture, introduced that since the school was hit by the disaster, the school’s party members have been staying on campus, picking up hoes and shovels to carry out dredging work, and continuing to carry out disaster rescue and protection of the campus.

Xiong Ping, the liaison officer for Linwu County's post-disaster reconstruction work in Zixing, said: "We are cleaning up day and night to get the school back online as soon as possible."

Affected by Typhoon Gemi, the buildings, facilities and equipment of 41 schools in Zixing City were damaged to varying degrees. With the coordinated assistance of the province, city and county levels, the local government accelerated the restoration and reconstruction of schools.

"We formed three working groups and went to the severely affected areas such as Zhoumensi Town, Bamianshan Yao Ethnic Township, Bailang Town, and Xingning Town in Zixing City to inspect the damage to schools, coordinate to solve various difficulties, and help the affected schools to resume and rebuild as soon as possible, comprehensively protect the safety of campuses and teachers and students, and ensure that all affected students do not drop out of school due to the disaster." said Li Hongchun, Party Secretary and Director of the Chenzhou Municipal Education Bureau.

In Zixing City, 12 urban schools have been arranged to pair up with severely affected schools for assistance. Starting from August 2, the Party General Branch of Dongjiang Middle School and the Party General Branch of Zixing No. 1 Primary School gathered 23 party members to go to Yanping Primary School to carry out campus dredging and reconstruction. The leaders of the party organizations of Zixing No. 1 Middle School, Liyujiang Primary School, Luowei Primary School, and the No. 3 Primary School of the city went to Longxi School to discuss the campus reconstruction plan, determine the assistance measures, and assist the school in resuming work.

At Yanping Primary School in Zhoumensi Town, more than 20 teachers and local villagers have been carrying out silt removal operations for more than ten days. At present, the teaching building, playground, and canteen have been basically cleaned up. The flood damaged the doors and windows on the first floor of the teacher's dormitory building. The school will arrange for teachers to temporarily live in the dormitories on the upper floors and repair them at the same time. The damaged canteen disinfection cabinets, air pumps and other equipment have also been donated by caring people. The equipment will be installed in place before the start of school to ensure the normal study and life of the 120 teachers and students in the school.

Chen Peng, principal of Yanping Primary School in Zhoumensi Town, Zixing City, said: "According to our plan, all silt removal will be completed on August 15. On August 20, we will organize all teachers to prepare for the start of school. We are currently working overtime and going all out to ensure that we can start school normally next semester."

In order to restore the hardware facilities of the affected schools as soon as possible, the Chenzhou Municipal Education Bureau organized the application for the central special lottery public welfare fund education aid project funds and education facilities and equipment funds, and tilted the school projects and fund allocation of the city's education system towards the affected schools, providing strong support for the recovery and reconstruction of the affected schools.

So far, 37 of the 41 schools affected by the disaster in Zixing have completed dredging. Local authorities have also arranged for professionals to appraise the school buildings and carry out reinforcement, demolition and reconstruction according to the situation. At the same time, they have repurchased damaged canteen equipment and teaching facilities to ensure that the school will open as scheduled in the fall.

“Don’t let any student drop out of school due to disasters”

"We will ensure that every student will not drop out of school or drop out due to natural disasters, and ensure that every student can go to school on schedule." He Jie, Party Secretary and Principal of Zixing No. 2 Middle School, introduced that Zixing No. 2 Middle School was originally a public school covering elementary school, junior high school and high school. The idle classrooms, activity rooms, offices, etc. after the high school department was withdrawn and merged have now been reopened. 20 classrooms and more than 700 dormitory beds can fully meet the needs of teachers and students transferred from Zhoumensi Middle School.

According to statistics, 82 school buildings collapsed or were damaged in this round of disasters in Zixing. According to the latest arrangements of the Chenzhou Municipal Education Department, four schools, Longxi School, Zhoumensi Middle School, Yanping Primary School, and Bamianshan Middle School, which were severely affected by the disaster, will be paired up with 12 schools in the urban area to help rebuild the campuses and ensure that teachers and students can start school normally in the fall.

In order to ensure the enrollment of students in the disaster-stricken areas, the Chenzhou Municipal Education Bureau has formulated the "Implementation Plan for Flood Control and Disaster Relief to Ensure the Opening of Schools in the City's Education System", clarified specific measures, implemented work responsibilities, and provided guarantees for schools in the disaster-stricken areas to open on time in the fall.

In order to help teachers and students in the disaster-stricken areas tide over the difficulties, the Chenzhou Municipal Education Bureau immediately deployed the investigation and rescue work for the affected students, and promptly launched a temporary rescue mechanism to provide care and assistance to the affected students.

The Zixing Municipal Education Bureau launched a green channel for enrollment, emergency assistance for students, assistance for teachers affected by the disaster, and paired assistance, and clarified matters such as the transfer process for students affected by the disaster and assistance for teachers and students.

In terms of the green channel for enrollment, parents of students who are unable to live in their original residence before the start of school due to the disaster can apply for enrollment in the place where they live with relatives or friends or rent a house.

In terms of student emergency assistance, we will strive to provide disaster-affected students with assistance for the fall semester of 2024 in accordance with national assistance policies by the end of September. At the same time, we will use funds from the Education Foundation to provide assistance to students (including college students) who have difficulty attending school due to the disaster, fully implement the credit-based student loan policy for college students, and solve the tuition and living expenses urgently needed by disaster-affected college students.

At present, 51,000 people have been surveyed in the city, including the seven worst-hit townships, which have affected 48 schools and 8,125 students. In order to ensure their lives, a grant of 9.78937 million yuan has been issued to support 1,687 students.

"We will include all the students affected by the disaster in the list of students from families with financial difficulties who will receive financial aid this fall. No student will drop out of school due to the disaster. We will also give priority to the affected teachers when we visit and comfort them on Teachers' Day and before the Spring Festival," said Li Hongchun.

Reporter Chen Zhangshu of Xiaoxiang Morning News Correspondent Xiao Huifang, Zhang Junqi and Huang Xiang

Reporting and rights protection channels: Download the "Morning Video" client from the App Store, search for "Help" and go directly to it; or add the reporting customer service on WeChat: xxcbcsp; or call the hotline 0731-85571188. If you need content cooperation, please call the government and enterprise service hotline 19176699651.