School getting back to normal

Things are getting back to normal at the Lhasa No. 2 Middle School after the recent riots.

The school, which has 842 students and 16 classes, is close to the Ramogia Monastery in the downtown area of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet autonomous region.

It was damaged during the riots, but repair work is now under way.

"We go to school at the same time as before and we have the same teacher," a student called Deyang said.

"Everything is getting back to normal," she said.

Around the campus, however, there are still signs of the riots, including office buildings charred by fire.

Also, the school's administration workers have been relocated and some students have been transferred to a nearby primary school.

On March 14, a group of rioters, after failing to get through the locked main gate of the school, set fire to adjacent shops. The blaze soon spread to buildings on the campus.

By the time fire engines arrived, two classrooms and part of a laboratory had been destroyed.

Deyang was hiding with her classmates on school grounds at the time of the attack.

"It was horrible," she said.

The cost of damage to the school buildings has been estimated at almost 8 million yuan ($1.14 million), Feng Xingjuan, vice-president of the school, said.

But with help from the local government and private donations, classes resumed after just three days.

One local teacher donated 4,000 yuan in the name of "Aisa" (Love Lhasa) and workers from a local transport company contributed 30,000 yuan.

The local education bureau also provided 55,000 yuan and the local administration of press and publications donated thousands of books.

"The rioters can burn our buildings, our textbooks and desks, but they can never destroy our confidence to rebuild our school," Feng said.

China Daily

(China Daily 04/23/2008 page6)