Archive for ‘Henan province’

02/04/2019

Chinese teacher suspected of poisoning children’s porridge

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A teacher at a kindergarten in central China has been detained by police on suspicion of poisoning 23 children, officials say.

The children were rushed to hospital after eating their morning porridge at the kindergarten in Jiaozuo city, Henan province, state media reported.

Preliminary investigations revealed the food contained high levels of sodium nitrite.

Police said a motive for the suspected poisoning was not yet clear.

However, Chinese media quoted police sources as saying the teacher had wanted to take revenge on a colleague.

The children began vomiting and fainting after eating their breakfast at the kindergarten last Wednesday, the Beijing News said. Police only reported the incident on Monday.

One parent said he was alerted by the school and arrived at hospital to find doctors had pumped his child’s stomach.

One child is still seriously ill and seven others are being treated in hospital, state run Xinhua news agency said. The other 15 were discharged.

According to local media, the school has been temporarily closed and the children distributed to other kindergartens.

Sodium nitrite is often used as a food additive for curing meat but can be toxic in high amounts.

Source: The BBC

10/03/2019

Xi stresses implementation of rural revitalization strategy

(TWO SESSIONS)CHINA-BEIJING-XI JINPING-NPC-DELIBERATION (CN)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, joins deliberation with deputies from central China’s Henan Province at the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing, capital of China, March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called for more efforts to implement the rural revitalization strategy with the chief goal to modernize agriculture and rural areas.

“The top task for implementing the rural revitalization strategy is to ensure supply of important farm produce, grain in particular,” said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks when joining deliberation with deputies from Henan Province at the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress, China’s national legislature.

Efforts should be made to promote the supply-side structural reform in the agricultural sector to achieve food security while building a modern and efficient agriculture, Xi added.

Xi also called for enhanced protection of agriculture ecological environment and prevention and treatment of pollution in rural areas.

Xi stressed strict penalties on crimes involving food safety so as to ensure safe farm produce for the public.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the leadership of grassroots Party units in the rural areas, Xi said, noting that the practices of rural residents’ self-governance should be further explored.

Xi also called for measures to promote two-way flow and equal exchange of factors, including human resources, lands and capital, between urban and rural areas.

“The task to eradicate extreme poverty must be fulfilled by 2020,” Xi stressed.

Implementation of the rural revitalization strategy and seeking progress in work related with agriculture, rural areas and farmers should be taken into consideration and promoted in the overall economic and social development, Xi said.

Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng — members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee — on Friday also separately joined deliberation with NPC deputies.

Premier Li Keqiang stressed building a business environment that is fair and convenient for enterprises under all forms of ownership, when joining a deliberation with deputies from Hubei Province.

He called for efforts to fully carry out the reforms of tax and fee cuts and further stimulate the market vitality.

Wang Huning, a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, asked deputies from central China’s Hunan Province to take bigger steps in pushing forward high-quality development.

He also called for taking a people-centered approach to further live up to people’s new expectations for their cultural lives.

Joining the deliberation of the Beijing delegation, Vice Premier Han Zheng underlined deepening the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to further relieve Beijing of functions nonessential to its role as the capital.

Source: Xinhua

21/02/2019

Chinese schools under fire after demanding parents pay for tablets

  • Students at one middle school were told they could join an ‘experimental class’ if they paid US$590 for a designated device
  • That class was later scrapped because of a lack of interest, while the principal of the other school clarified that its plan was not compulsory

Chinese schools under fire after demanding parents pay for tablets

21 Feb 2019

Parents took to social media asking why they had to buy a new tablet when they already had one, and questioning why a specific model was needed. Photo: Alamy
Parents took to social media asking why they had to buy a new tablet when they already had one, and questioning why a specific model was needed. Photo: Alamy
Two schools in northern China have come under fire from parents after they were asked to spend thousands of yuan on tablets for their children’s studies, with one forced to cancel its plan for an “experimental class” due to a lack of interest.

At that school, paying for the device would have given a student a place in a top class where they had access to the best resources.

Earlier this week, Yuying School in Yongnian county, Hebei province demanded 3,000 yuan (US$450) from parents of Year Seven students so that tablets could be bought to assist their studies, Red Star News reported on Wednesday.

They were told via a message on social network WeChat from one of the teachers. It said students should bring the money on Thursday – the first day of the new term – because the private school wanted to “teach using tablets to improve classroom efficiency”. Screenshots of the message have been circulating on social media.

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But some parents were against the idea, asking on the WeChat group why they had to buy a new tablet when they already had one, and questioning why a specific model was needed.

“We have several tablets at home – can’t my child use one of them at school?” one parent asked.

Another wrote: “I’m just wondering if this tablet is really worth 3,000 yuan.”

The reaction prompted school principal Li Jinxi to clarify on Wednesday that the tablet purchase was not mandatory, and staff had “misunderstood the policy”, according to the report.

“There could be some minor impact for those students who don’t buy the tablet but it won’t be a big deal because we will also continue to use traditional teaching methods,” he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, at Gongyi No 1 Senior High school in Henan province, students were told they could join an “experimental class” if they paid 3,980 yuan for a designated tablet, according to a report on news app Kuaibao on Tuesday.

The school had contacted some of its top students to take part in its “smart class cloud teaching experiment”, the report said.

But the Gongyi education bureau later posted a statement on Weibo, saying only about 70 of the school’s 520 students had signed up for the plan so the school had decided to scrap the idea and would refund the money to parents.

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The school was not the first in China to give students a chance to enter a top class if they bought tablets. In 2015, a school in Longkou, Shandong province told students that those who did not pay for a tablet would end up in “ordinary classes”. After the move caused uproar, the school ended up offering a free three-month trial of the devices, with students then able to choose whether to buy one or not – a decision that would not affect which class they got put in.

Source: SCMP

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