Students and teachers are concerned about security management on Chinese campus, calling for more contingency response training and exercises, after reports of several serious fire accidents.

About 72.1 percent of respondents in an online survey were not satisfied with security facilities on their campus, according to the survey report issued by Wednesday's China Youth Daily.

More than half of them complained about the aging facilities and 47.7 percent said the emergency exits were not available for use.

About 77.5 percent of them wanted contingency response training and 82.7 percent welcomed contingency exercises, the report said.

More than 1,000 respondents took part in the survey, which began on November 20 at http://edu.news.sina.com.cn specially on college students, six days after four female students jumped to death when their dorm caught fire in a Shanghai college.

A day after the Shanghai fire, a laboratory at Beijing-based China Agricultural University caught fire and the fire alarm on the campus did not work. No casualties were reported.

Although surprised at what the Shanghai girls did in the fire, Lin Yang, studying at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in central Hubei province, admitted that he did not know how to use fire extinguishers.

"All I can think of is to cover my nose and mouth with wet towels," he said.

Like Lin, 54.2 percent of those surveyed did not know how to use fire extinguishers, and 70.8 percent did not receive any related training.

Prof. Zhang Rui, with physical education department of the Peking University, said casualty could be avoided in emergencies if students were well trained.

He cited a school principal in southwestern Sichuan province who organized regular contingency exercises for earthquake. His school managed to evacuate all the students and staff safely when the 8.0 magnitude-earthquake hit the area on May 12.

But, Yi Siting from Beijing-based Renmin University, worried that training programs might become boring, if not practical, and students would lose the interest as time went by.

"Over a hundred classes cannot match one exercise. We should experience the tense atmosphere," said a Shanghai Jiao Tong University student surnamed Yang.

Teng Wuxiao, director of the urban public security research center in Shanghai-based Fudan University, suggested that the duties of those responsible for safety education be clarified.

Neither the university security departments, usually mobilized against crime, nor the fire departments were in charge of training programs, he said.

"In addition to the universities, the fire departments should bear the responsibilities not only to control fires but also educate people," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2008)