The Ministry of Education on Sunday released new guidelines requiring all primary and middle schools to strengthen students' safety education.

 

The guidelines list requirements for on-campus safety education that include protection against physical injuries, public health incidents, and natural disasters, but do not mention specific measures for implementation.

 

They also highlight self-protection from sexual harassment, prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as the importance of resisting pornographic and subversive online information.

 

Through on-campus training, the education program aims to raise safety awareness among Chinese teenagers and provide them with the ability to protect themselves.

 

China reported a series of hepatitis A outbreaks in primary and middle schools last year, along with tragic accidents in which students were killed or injured.

 

Six students in east China's Jiangxi Province were trampled to death and 39 injured last November when hundreds of students at the school in Duchang County swarmed out of evening classes and into the stairwell.

 

That same month, eight primary school students were killed and nine more seriously injured when the bus carrying them fell off a six-meter-high bridge in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)