Yangzi Evening News, January 7, 2009

Today's Yangzi Evening News reports that in Nanjing, next to the Dujiang Victory Memorial Museum, high school students are attending class outside in the cold:

A netizen "yangziren" on the Xici.net forum Yangzi Dinner Group (扬子晚饭团) posted to say that when he was visiting the Dujiang Victory Memorial Museum he saw a group of students sitting around in the square listening to their teacher take class in the freezing temperature of -2 degrees Celsius. Why were they on the river dyke and not in the classroom? The answer is that class had been disrupted by the noises of demolition from nearby, therefore the teacher decided to take the students to this square in order to have an atypical English lesson...

This reporter was told that the students studying that day were from the 5th class of the Number 12 High School. This reporter found a couple of students from the class and they recalled that, "The other day the machinery was really close to us, and the noise was so loud it made us panic. I was sitting in the back row, and couldn't hear anything the teacher was saying to us. For the past week, the teacher's voice has been breaking." But some girl students said that the weather was good on some days and in the sun it wasn't really cold. "When we used to be at the main campus, the teacher would sometimes take us to the little fruit gardens to have a lesson, and everyone felt relaxed."

"But the teacher still feels quite cold, when we are on break she stays there to look after the booklets, but has to jog a little to keep warm." "Everyone in the class supports the teacher in what she has chosen to do." But they still expressed their worry, studying outdoors can only happen on occasion, and the noise is still detrimental to their education. One worker at the school told this reporter, a little while ago some of the students reported a headache, and went back to their dorms early to rest. They couldn't attend their evening self study classes either.

For this matter the reporter interviewed Teacher Fu from the department of education administration (in the school), he said that the demolition has gone on for the last two weeks, a dozen classes have been severely disrupted, and the efficiency of the classes have been lowered significantly. As they are all in their third year of high school, pressure on the kids is extremely big. When the incidents first occurred the school tried to reach a compromise with the demolition site, as well as coordination from Education departments.

In the last few days the demolition site has agreed to only work during certain hours, and mostly on the weekends and after school hours. The relevant construction bureau has expressed that the area belongs to Erbanqiao (二板桥), which is still in the planning process － it may become a double office and residential complex. But many students and parents are worried: the first step is demolition, but it might become construction, which could conflict with the timing of the university entrance examinations. Is it possible that the learning ground will be quiet?