Cruel waste of public resources

It's a pity that Hope primary school at Longchang in Kaili city of Guizhou province has been transformed into a garbage station, says an article in Qianjiang Evening News. Excerpts:

The Hope primary school in Longchang town was built on 200,000 yuan ($32,081) of donations and 150,000 yuan of local funds but was run for only one and half years to provide education to children.

The head of Kaili's education bureau, Long Yunguo, has regretted the transformation of the school into a garbage station. But the fact is that 350,000 yuan has been wasted, and donors cannot accept just an expression of regret by Long and see their donations go down the drain.

Long said the school ceased to operate because the area around it was chosen as a relocation site for villagers but the plan did not succeed. One cannot help but ask if the plan had been worked out after taking all the pros and cons into consideration. Why else did the plan to relocate the villagers didn't succeed?

More incredibly, the local education bureau said it didn't notice when the school was abandoned and transformed into a garbage station. Such remarks can be perceived as lame excuse - if not an act of criminal neglect. Were the local education bureau officials sleeping when the school was abandoned?

China's expenditure on education has reached 4 percent of GDP after years of struggle and the education sector is expected to take a turn for the better. But given the example of the Hope school, things will not change much even if the education sector accounts for 10 percent of GDP.

Of lavatories and public health

According to the latest public lavatory hygienic standard recommendations, there should be no more than one fly per square meter in public restrooms. This has sparked a debate online, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

Some people say the new standard lays too much emphasis on details like controlling the number of flies, which will remain a regulation on paper despite the good intentions because of the difficulty in enforcing it.

But besides restricting the number of flies per square meter, the new public lavatory hygienic standard has many strong points compared to the version of 1998. The first is that in areas where the numbers of men and women are relatively the same, the proportion of male and female toilets should be 1 to 2. This is logical, considering the needs of women.

Moreover, rural and tourist areas are also included in the new standard in contrast to the focus on urban areas in the 1998 standard. This should be considered a breakthrough.

Furthermore, according to sanitation standards in rural areas, the new recommendations lay special emphasis on facilities such as septic tanks and methane separation tanks.

It is said that the level of a nation's civilization can be gauged from how clean its lavatories are. The new standard published by the Ministry of Public Health certainly reflects the progress China has made in elevating its social and civil facilities.

But to make its efforts more effective, the government should draw up rules that are scientific and reasonable. And since everyone should be able to follow the regulations, it is extremely important to solicit more public opinions before drawing up the rules.

(China Daily 02/28/2013 page9)