By Wang Ru in Gansu and Wu Jiao in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-07 11:02

Sixth grader Zhang Hua used to hate walking in the scorching sun as she returned to school for afternoon classes at 3pm due to daylight saving time.

But it was this decision to alter the school hours in her hometown, in effect from May 1, that saved thousands of students like her in Wenxian, the southernmost county in Gansu province, from being buried under the debris of the collapsed buildings when the May 12 earthquake struck.

"When I arrived at the school I saw that the huge rocks on the mountain behind it were starting to move and roll toward it," recalled the 13-year-old.

Pupils at Wenxian Bikou Primary School in Longnan, Gansu province, attend a lesson last week in their new temporary classroom. [China Daily]

"Then I saw the teaching building collapse all of a sudden and the nearby teachers' residential building started to fall down."

Wenxian county is just 200 kilometers from the quake's epicenter at Wenchuan in Sichuan province. As one of the worst hit counties in the quake, Wenxian saw about 93 percent of its houses destroyed or damaged, affecting 250,000 people in 305 villages. A total of 111 fatalities were reported in the county.

"As most of my schoolmates were either sleeping at home or on our way back to school when the quake happened, we narrowly escaped being buried when the teaching building collapsed," said Zhang.

Speaking with China Daily on Friday, Zhang still couldn't help feeling the horror when recalling the deadly scene.

Zhang and her classmates are now back at school in one of the 22 temporary classrooms which have been erected for the students of Bikou Primary School

But the 40 sq m classroom seems a little crowded for the 40-plus children in her class.

The school's fourth, fifth and sixth graders have resumed their lessons in the makeshift classrooms, but due to shortage of desks and facilities, the three lower grades are still missing classes.

"We are now in serious shortage of desks and chairs, and tents for the teachers to live in," said 38-year-old Dong Shoutian, the school's headmaster.

Dong said they are now in dire need of help, as they have received few donations apart from a small sum promised by some local small businesses that has yet to be paid.

Bikou Primary School is just one of the 380 schools in the county to have been affected by the quake. The county government is currently striving to ensure that all people are properly accommodated in temporary housnig.

As schools have been given priority during reconstruction, education has been partially resumed in the county, with 100 sets of mobile classrooms set up for 6,000 students in three schools. Meanwhile, 13,600 students in 106 schools are now also having classes in the open air or in tents.