Responding to an attack last month by a knife-wielding man who injured 23 young students, top law enforcement officials said schools and kindergartens now must have at least one full-time security guard.
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A campaign will be launched that targets crime in areas around schools and kindergartens, the officials announced at a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday.
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Meanwhile, the infrastructure, food, fire and transportation safety around schools and kindergartens will be examined, the People's Daily reported.
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The announcements followed an attack by a 36-year-old villager who injured 23 students in a primary school in Guangshan county, Henan province, on Dec 14.
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Min Yongjun is alleged to have stormed into the school and stabbed the students.
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Local authorities later said Min was found to have "limited criminal capacity", which means Min has mental problems but could still control his actions, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
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The Wednesday meeting did not specify the funding source for security guards, and that caused schools in poor areas to worry.
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"Right now we are struggling to pay the wages of two substitute teachers, not to mention a full-time security guard," said Ma Guanghui, principal of Mengda Baojie Primary School in Xunhua Salar autonomous county in Qinghai province.
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"Hiring a security guard would definitely be a good idea. But it is not possible for us right now unless the authorities can help solve the funding problem," he said in a phone interview.
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Beijing municipal authorities started requiring schools and kindergartens to hire security guards in 2010. The capital city's education commission has pledged to provide funding for kindergartens with financial difficulties.
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However, primary and middle schools, especially those for children of migrant workers in Beijing, have to pay security guards with their own money.
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Zhang Gezhen, principal of Mingyuan School in Haidian district in Beijing, said his school for migrant children has four security guards.
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"The wage bill of security guards is a considerable expense for the school as we had to rely on tuition for all expenses. I hope the authorities or non-government organizations will help cover the expenses," he said.
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By the end of 2013, Shanghai will provide all its schools and kindergartens with monitoring devices and security personnel, the municipality's education commission said on Thursday.
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Since last year, Shanghai has been working to improve security in schools and kindergartens.
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Each school and kindergarten will have three or four security personnel, who will receive training from a professional security company.
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Schools and kindergartens are also required to strengthen monitoring, and to equip their campuses with alarms and monitoring systems.
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By the end of last year, a total of 13,655 security personnel had been allocated to 3,290 middle and primary schools and kindergartens, according to the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.
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A remote control security network has been established by the education and public security authorities, linking the city's 13 districts' schools and kindergartens.
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By the end of this year, the rest of the schools and kindergartens in the city will also have finished the security upgrade work and joined the citywide network.