"Student safety is the priority of all the teachers in China," said Minister of Education Zhou Ji at the ceremony held to inaugurate a program to teach kids self-defense.

Going to and from school -- and even on school grounds -- kids and youth have increasingly fallen victim to robbery, threats and violence, as well as sexual assaults, during the past couple of years.

Some students in higher grades fight in gangs, sometimes joining up with drifters and other unsavory people outside school, according to Liu Boyao, a fifth grader at Beijing Yucai School.

The youngster said, "I sincerely hope it will end soon with help from policemen, teachers and the whole society."

The program, launched by the Ministry of Education and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, will have tutors create simulations of possible scenarios, like robberies, and lead the students through rapid and proper responses.

The program is scheduled to continue for a year. Specialists such as medical personnel, lawyers and firefighters will be invited to participate.

Local educational administrations are also asked to analyze the incidents around their campuses in the past year and strengthen security in the surrounding areas.

A team of experts organized by the Ministry of Education will be dispatched to track the progress of the program at various localities.

China initiated Safety Education Day for Children and Youth in 1996. It is held on the last Monday of every March.

(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2004)