The Ministry of Education has set up a system to help local governments and schools deal with the fallout from major emergencies.

Under the new system, "supervision and guidance groups" will be deployed when emergencies are reported to monitor investigations, identify safety issues and urge improvements.

Under the new system, announced at a news conference on Wednesday, when a major emergency takes place on or off campus, local governments and schools will receive supervision and guidance from a special group sent out by the steering committee for education under the State Council.

At the first signs of an emergency, the steering committee will assess the extent and impact of the incident and then decide whether to send the monitoring group.

The list of potential emergencies includes any major incident that may harm students and teachers, such as natural disasters, accidents, and health or security incidents on campus.

The new system follows on a series of emergency situations in recent years that affected schools, such as earthquakes, floods, security incidents involving school buses, food poisoning and problems with teachers' behavior.

In January, 26 students were found to have cheated on entrance exams for the Harbin University of Science and Technology's MBA course. The director of the MBA recruiting office at the university was involved in the scandal, and the amount of money involved totaled 1.5 million yuan ($247,500).

After a month of investigations, nine people were detained in connection with the case and 90 sets of equipment used for cheating in the exams were seized, according to the education authorities in Heilongjiang province, where the university is located.

He Xiuchao, director of the supervision and guidance department at the Education Ministry, said the special group sent out under the new system would serve like a "fire brigade".

"As a third party distinct from local governments and schools, the special group is not responsible for handling the incidents directly, but focuses on urging and guiding the other parties to handle the incidents in the best way, so that the adverse effects of the incidents are kept to a minimum," he said.

The special groups comprise educational experts and highly experienced national education supervisors.

The groups will be involved at all levels, including supervising investigations, the reconstruction of damaged campuses and classrooms, identifying causes of problems and holding people to account, he said. They will also assist in guiding the recovery of students after traumatic experiences.

Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, said the "supervision and guidance" system comes at the right time, as major emergencies on and off campus, are common these days.

But it's still hard to say how big a role the group can play in dealing with major education-related incidents, Chu said.

"As a third-party institution, the group may seem to lack the necessary authority, and local governments may not cooperate with it or follow its instructions. Under such circumstances, the group may face unexpected difficulties," he said.

"Ensuring the group can perform its duties to the full is a major issue that education departments should consider," he added.

zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/13/2014 page5)