China's educational authority has redoubled its safety education among teaching staff and students in secondary and primary schools in a bid to enhance their ability to cope with natural disasters which proved to be a major threat this year.

The Ministry of Education asked local educational departments and schools to carry out safety education by holding lectures, contests and drills on emergency evacuation and self-salvation in case of emergencies.

Natural calamities, including typhoon, flood, mud-rock flow, sliding and earthquake, have frequently struck China since the beginning of this year.

The Ministry has conducted a checkup nationwide of school buildings in all of the country's secondary and primary schools and has amplified the existing early-warning system for the flood season and emergency plans to prevent natural calamity.

Once serious latent danger is spotted in school buildings, relevant schools must take countermeasures immediately including suspending the classes, the Ministry said.

China's ministries of education, public security, health and justice jointly released regulations on safeguarding security in kindergartens, secondary and primary schools earlier this year to set down specific measures to ward off natural calamity.

The central budget has allocated 69 million yuan (around US$8.625 million) between 2002 and 2005 to help rebuild disaster-stricken school buildings of more than 8 million square meters, according to the Ministry of Education.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2006)