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.

(China Daily 02/28/2013 page9)