A trampling incident involving an escalator has injured 16 primary students going to a playground at a mall in Nanjing, Jiangsu.

At around 10 yesterday morning, some 40 to 50 Grade 1 and 2 students from the Yuhuatai Experimental School were going to Happy World at the Rsun Mall as part of their annual autumn outing. As Sina News reports, the kids got onto an escalator to the third floor, but the double glass doors to the playground there were locked. The small platform on the third floor was only three square meters, so with kids coming up the escalator it quickly filled up leading to a pileup and injuries.

Nearly 20 students were on the escalator at the time of the incident. Sixteen were taken to Pukou Hospital, of which five are listed in serious condition and have been transferred to the hospital’s children ward.

Related:

• The Deadly School Stampede: China’s Annual Tragedy
• Shanghai Police Respond to Deadly New Year’s Trampling at Historic Bund Waterfront
• Fainting Passenger Sparks Panicked Stampede on Guangzhou Metro
• One Second a Woman is Riding a Department Store Escalator, The Next Second She’s Dead
• Boy Swallowed Up in Another Deadly Escalator Accident in China

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Come this fall, some 36 Guangzhou elementary and middle schools will serve as the pilot project for the program, which, if successful, may expand to other provinces around China. According to the CSRC, about 10,000 students will receive the training as a way to “popularize” responsible financial management.

The curriculum will be specifically prepared by experts selected by the Guangdong branch of the CSRC.

The post Students as Young as 5 to Learn About the Stock Market in Guangzhou appeared first on The Nanfang.

A huge mass of people congregate at a Kunming school where a fatal stampede had occurred.

It might seem like an unlikely occurrence, but for some reason deadly school stampedes have become all too commonplace in China. The most recent was at a Yunnan primary school in September, but it’s merely the latest in a long line of tragedies.

Six kids died In the Yunnan case, with another 22 injured in the stampede. As reported by Xinhua, children between the ages of seven and nine were playing with two mattress in a stairwell when some of them became trapped underneath the mattresses. When other students were let out of class and filled the stairwell, they trampled over the children who were crushed underfoot.

A huge mass of people congregate at a Kunming school where a fatal stampede had occurred in the face of a strong police presence.

While the term “stampede” may bring to mind the Love Parade disaster or the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, UK, China retains the distinction of having the deadliest stampede in human history. On June 6, 1941, between 1,000 and 4,000 Chongqing residents died in a stampede triggered by the Japanese bombing of the city.

While stampedes tend to happen in situations involving huge migrations of people during things like religious pilgrimages, music festivals or sporting events, stampedes have a tendency to occur in Chinese schools.

Just take a look at this harrowing list:

• In February 2013, four elementary schoolchildren died and seven were injured in a stampede that happened when students in a stairwell kept pushing against a locked gate in Xiangyang, Hubei. The children were described as being “overly excited”.
• In November 2012, five students passed out and 17 were injured in a stampede during an earthquake drill at an elementary school in Lingao, Hainan.
• In November 2010, 123 children were rushed to hospital after a stampede in a stairwell at an elementary school in Aksu, Xinjiang. In the end, 41 students were injured and one was in critical condition. The stampede began when a girl named “Madina” lost her shoe and stopped to look for it, but the other children kept moving.
• In March 2010, one girl was killed and three injured at a primary school in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Hundreds of students were trying to reach a single room at the end of a 1.5 meter-wide corridor when one of them tripped.
• In December 2009, eight students died and 26 were injured in a stampede at a middle school in Xiangyang, Hunan. The cause is unclear, but it‘s reported at the time up to 2,500 students tried to exit a single narrow stairwell in a four-story building that is only 1.2 meters wide. A witness said the tangle of bodies went up the span of the stairwell for three floors.

Police maintain a strong presence at the scene of a fatal school stampede in Kunming.

• In August 2007, 17 boys were injured at a primary school bathroom in Qujing, Yunnan when one boy shouted that his shoe had fallen into a toilet.
• In November 2006, six students died and 39 others were injured in a stampede in a stairwell at a middle school in Duchang, Jiangxi. A witness said a student had stopped at the bottom of the stairwell to tie his shoelaces.
• In October 2005, up to 12 students died in a stampede with another 45 injured at a school in Tongjiang, Sichuan. Right before the stampede a blackout occurred in which a government official said “some students were joking about ghosts which scared the others into running.”
• Also in October 2005, ten students were injured in a stampede at an elementary school in Loudi, Hubei. Students rushing into the school had run into students running outside for physical exercise.
• Again in October 2005, a male student died and 64 others were injured from a stampede in Aksu, Urumqi. A guard rail had collapsed on the staircase when the students were rushing outside to a flag-raising ceremony.
•  In October 2004, one student died and 25 others were injured when a stampede occurred at a primary and middle school in Xuan’en, Hubei. The cause of the incident was suspected to be someone falling down.
• In September 2002, 21 students died and 47 were injured in a stampede at a middle school in Fengzhen, Inner Mongolia. A railing had collapsed as hundreds of students funneled down a darkened staircase after evening classes during a power blackout. Most of the dead suffocated under the bodies of their classmates.

Some people blame the education system for the almost annual tragedies. Middle school teacher and blogger Zhang Xiaojun said campus safety runs a distant second to academic achievement:

The school’s end-all, be-all is quality of education, which is to say, exam scores. Teachers and students consider scores as something as important as life itself and everything else is secondary.

 

Police maintain a strong presence at the scene of a fatal school stampede in Kunming.

Other experts blame school stampedes on poor facilities and supervision. Retired professor Zhang Yutang said many schools’ stairways are too narrow and not fitted with anti-slip flooring, and that stairwells require teachers supervision to “keep order”.

Meanwhile, an unidentified ministry spokesman was quoted by the People’s Daily as saying, “These incidents are avoidable if people stick to our documents and requirements.”

Police line up in formation at a the scene of a fatal school stampede in Kunming.

A 2007 joint study by the ministries of education and public security stated that roughly 16,000 children die in accidents and “abnormal circumstances” every year. The final report states about 80 percent of these deaths are “preventable”.

Without any push for change, it’s expected that more Chinese children will die from stampedes in the future.

Related:

• Knife Attack Rumor Launches Stampede on Guangzhou Metro
• Watch: Foreigner Faints on Shanghai Metro, Other Passengers Run Away
• Free Live Chicken Giveaway Causes Frenzy That Not Even iPhone Can Match

Photos: Foshan Daily

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The idea is being tried at the Yiting Elementary School in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, according to the Qiangjiang Evening Report. Under the model, teachers stand up and lecture the class from behind, speaking to the backs of students’ heads.

The school thinks this method will both help students learn and teachers teach. As explained in the report, teachers can now proceed with a lesson uninterrupted, and yet maintain interactivity with students by getting up from their desks and attending to each individual student. Teachers can keep an eye on the class at all times, and don’t need to spend as much time policing them.

On the other hand, students can better focus on the lesson because of fewer distractions, such as the teacher walking around in front of them. The school also believes students will be more obedient, because they won’t know when the teacher is looking at them.

Finally, the reform has done away with one of the most traditional features of a Chinese classroom: the teaching podium. The school said the podium overly formalizes instruction, describing it as giving “pressure” to teachers.

These changes are meant to make students more accountable. They need to pay attention to lessons or risk falling behind without an easy way to catch up by following the teacher’s cues. Both students and parents are largely supportive of the new initiative:

Our children are more vigorous than most, and are scared of the teacher. This way, when they go to class they will be happy and not have any misgivings.

Still, this doesn’t do away with perhaps the biggest problem of the Chinese educational system: rote learning.

Photos: People’s Daily

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[This post contains graphic images that may be upsetting to some readers.]

It is an ominous start to the new school year.

A man charged into an elementary school in Hubei Province on the first day of classes today and attacked students and faculty with a knife, killing three children and leaving six others injured, including a teacher, reports CCTV.

The assailant used a knife to attack a total of nine people. In addition to the three fatalities, six people have been injured. Five of the injured are students, and one is a teacher named Liu Hongqing.

Two of the students are in serious condition. The victims have been moved to hospital for medical treatment.

The attack happened at 10:40 this morning at the Yanxi County East Elementary School. Following the attacks, the suspect, identified as Chen, committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school building.

A parent named Li Zhiguo said her ten year-old daughter was attending her fifth grade class when she was attacked. Li’s daughter sat in the desk in the second last row next to the window. The assailant didn’t even enter the class to attack his victims, but used his knife to slash through the window, injuring Li’s daughter’s face.

UPDATED 4:51pm September 1: According to a preliminary investigation, the discovered why Chen used a knife to kills and injure so many schoolchildren is because his own daughter was not allowed to enroll for class today because she had not completed her assignments from summer holiday, reports the Foshan Daily.

Chen is now said to have specifically come to the fifth grade class of the school to attack its students and teacher with a fruit knife.

Photos: Weibo (2), CCTV

The post Attacker Invades Hubei Elementary School Killing 3 On 1st Day of Class [UPDATED] appeared first on The Nanfang.

According to the Chutian Metropolis Report, a person forcibly entered the campus of the No. 3 elementary school in Haokou County, City of Qianjiang, Hubei Province this morning and took a teacher hostage.

The suspect was reportedly shot four times. The teacher is said to have not sustained any injuries. A search of the suspect revealed he or she was in possession of knives, gasoline, and explosive devices.

CCTV reports the attacker may have left explosives behind in the school.

Students and staff have been evacuated as police continue their search of the campus.

UPDATE 7:01pm May 6: The suspect who attempted to take a classroom of elementary school students hostage at the No. 3 elementary school has been identified as 57 year-old Zhang X.

Zhang was having a dispute with the Xuqiao Village committee member Mr Xu over the compensation from land requisition and new residence provided in this exchange. Mr Xu’s grandson attends this elementary school and is a member of the class that was taken hostage, reports Yangcheng Evening Report.

Zhang had reportedly come to the classroom of 50 schoolchildren carrying an explosive device that he intended to set off. The class teacher and a deputy secretary are said to have volunteered to act as hostages in exchange for the students’ freedom.

When negotiations broke down, Zhang had supposedly poured gasoline on the hostage and was shot dead by police, reports CCTV.

Zhang is a retired soldier who is described as having been sent to a prison camp.

Photos: Southern Metropolis Daily via Weibo

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A photo of one of the girls which was uploaded as part of the initial Sina Weibo post.

Seven female primary school students have been enticed into working in a Dongguan toy factory after being driven in a van from their native Liangshan in Sichuan Province. Authorities in both cities are now conducting a search for the girls, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

Interestingly, it was a post on Sina Weibo that spurred authorities in the remote part of Sichuan into action.

After a December 4 post on Sina Weibo claimed the seven girls had been taken away in a van on Sunday, authorities in Zhaojue County, where the girls went to school, confirmed that they were missing.The post has been forwarded almost 9,000 times.

A teacher from the school, who refused to be named, said the girls ranged in age from 11 to 14 and none of them were particularly good students.

The Liangshan Public Security Bureau began conducting a search yesterday. After one of the girls called home, authorities in Zhaojue were able to verify that the girls were in Dongguan, confirming some of what the initial microblog post had claimed.

A further investigation was able to verify that the girls are working illegally in a toy factory in the city but are safe.

Authorities are confident they will find the girls and bring them home, but their future is highly unlikely to be rosy.

The county is dirt poor and agriculture is the only source of income. A farmer in the county can expect to earn around 923 yuan a year. The girls’ school is the most prestigious in the area but that says very little as all but a tiny few students are expected to start working at 15 or 16 years old.

In 2008, 76 students went missing from the county, the youngest of which was 7. Forty-two are known to have started working in factories.

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