School resumes in quake-hit Sichuan

Lessons for about 240 students of a junior high school in Kangding in southwest China's Sichuan Province restarted on Thursday after an earthquake last week.
The 6.3-magnitude earthquake, which struck on Nov. 22, affected more than 7,000 students.
Students of Muya Zuqing School in Tagong, the epicenter of Saturday's earthquake, will be taught in six prefabricated classrooms.
The students are all ninth graders preparing for their senior high school entrance examinations. They will receive counselling before lessons restart, according to the county's education bureau.
The school has 1,898 students in all, most of whom are ethnically-Tibetan. Lessons for the remainder of students will not restart until before the beginning of December, after another 42 temporary classrooms are installed, according to the bureau.
Dorms for students and teachers will also be built.
Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude aftershock hampered the reopening of schools in the quake zone as more buildings were damaged.
Experts sent by the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ministry have been tasked with the examination of all schools in the area.
The Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture's information office said it expected the first batch of schools, those that sustained the least damage, will reopen by Dec. 1.
The earthquake killed five people and injured 68 since Saturday.
Fifty-nine people are still being treated for their injuries in hospital, two of whom remain in a critical condition, according to the provincial health and family planning committee.
Telecommunication, water and power supply and traffic have resumed in the quake zone.
The prefectural and county governments allocated 9 million yuan (1.46 million U.S. dollars) to cover emergency relief and have evacuated 9,184 residents.
About 1,000 medical staff were sent to the quake-affected areas and items, such as tents, quilts, clothes and shoes have been distributed to those in need.