Quake zone students look to future with college exam
Updated: 2008-07-04 00:01
Many of these teenagers are recovering from the biggest trauma of their lives and the deaths of relatives and friends. Reports said about 7,000 students died in the disaster, many buried by badly built school buildings.
Many schools provided counseling for teachers and students during the preparation period to help them cope.
"Do not talk with the examinees about the earthquake" is the advice given to proctors in a manual.
In the Changhong Training Center venue in Mianyang City, Sichuan, 935 examinees from the worst-hit Beichuan County sat for the exam.
"What they are faced with is not only the exam, but dreadful memories of the earthquake," said a proctor surnamed Liu.
He and other proctors were trained in evacuation procedures. If an aftershock occurs, two proctors in each makeshift classroom will lead examinees outside and take custody of their exam papers.
Helicopters were used for the first time to take the exam papers to 13 test sites in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, said Zhou Xinbin, an official with the provincial education and examination institute.
"Roads to these venues were either blocked or threatened by the earthquake, and we are afraid landslides and cave-ins may occur while transporting exam papers," Zhou said.
Four helicopters carried 4,000 sets of exam papers to these areas, and armed police guarded them before the exam started.
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