Li Yadong, director of the China Youth Development Foundation's Hope primary school department, a nonprofit group that has supported school construction in remote areas, said there were no reports that any of the 170 Hope primary schools in Sichuan province had collapsed. He said the primary schools it helps fund typically cost between $70,000 and $115,000, and the design and construction are supervised closely.
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China will study collapse of schools
The public is angered by the fact that the structures fell even as nearby buildings held up in the 7.9 quake.
THE WORLD
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But Bing Bing, a volunteer teacher in Guizhou province and organizer of a teachers union that has helped build rural schools, said the union's facilities run only about $16,000 each.
Typically they are single-story structures with two classrooms, one office and a warehouse, she said.
"We have never thought about earthquake resistance before," Bing said. "We were thinking about the most urgent needs, that is, to let those kids have a school building first."
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don.lee@latimes.com
Times staff writer Mark Magnier in Dujiangyan and Cao Jun in The Times' Shanghai Bureau contributed to this report.
