A new village primary school built in 2009 in Weinan, Shaanxi province, was leased to an auto dealership. Such a move by local authorities must be denounced and rectified, says an article in Xinhua News. Excerpts:

The school, Zhaocun Yifu Primary School, was built in Zhaocun at a cost of 1.9 million yuan ($302,000), of which more than 254,000 yuan was donated by the Hong Kong film mogul and philanthropist Run Run Shaw. The rest of the money came from the local sources.

After a mere two weeks of classes there, some 100 pupils from the village were sent back to their former school of tile-roofed houses built in the 1960s and ’70s. The new building was leased for 10 years to an auto dealer for 1.75 million yuan.

The village committee used the pretext that a high-speed railway 20 meters from the new school grounds posed a threat to student safety.

Why was this not taken into account at the very beginning? Are half-century- old tile-roofed houses any safer?

This is not only disrespectful of Run Run Shaw’s goodwill, it is a shameless sell-out of our children’s education – the nation’s future - for short- term business gains. It must be corrected. Such short-sightedness is an obstacle to our nation’s sound economic development and must be removed.