A program to help children and youth to improve self-protection abilities and create a safe campus environment was launched here Monday, China's Safety Education Day for youth and children.

"Student safety is the priority of all the teachers in China," said education minister Zhou Ji at the launching ceremony.

On the way to and coming back from school, or even at school, Chinese kids and youth have increasingly fallen victim to robbery, threats and disturbances as well as sexual assaults during the past couple of years.

Some students in higher grades fight against each other in groups, sometimes even ganging up with roamers and other indecent people outside school, told Liu Boyao, a fifth grader at Beijing Yucai School.

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

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 real scenarios, like robbery, and lead students through it, so as to tell them how to make a quick response in these situations.

Lasting for one year, the program will invite medical staff, lawyers and firemen to participate.

Local educational administrations are also asked to analyze the incidents of attacks around campuses in the past year and strengthen the security of the school neighborhood.

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

China initiated the Security Education Day for children and youth in 1996, setting it as the last Monday of every March.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2004)