Public security education is the best way to avoid disasters, says an article in Beijing News. An excerpt follows:

Statistics indicate that every year in China the number of injuries caused by accidents relating to public safety, whether natural or man-made disasters, exceeds 1 million. The direct economic cost of these accidents reaches as much as 550 billion yuan (US$68.75 billion) 6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

China has set up an emergency mechanism nationwide to cope with difficult situations, improve accident-handling efficiency and reduce losses.

Some local governments have also laid out a set of emergency programs that will provide sufficient transportation, materials, funds and manpower assistance to help those in need.

No doubt, these concrete measures have played a very positive role in lessening the damage caused by disasters. But the country's work is not adequate in terms of public security education an important factor that could reduce the impact of disasters.

For example, few primary and middle school students have set up public security courses. Also, most schools have never held accident prevention drills for their teachers and students.

The fact is that, due to a lack of public safety education and awareness, the consequences of some disasters have been more serious than they could have been.

In big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, public security infrastructure is comparable to that of some developed countries. However, there is a wide gap in terms of security awareness.

Poor security education has led to poor security knowledge among common people.

The country should have learned its lesson in the wake of past public security accidents.

We should strengthen public security education in schools, especially in primary and middle schools.

Only with proper security knowledge can people learn to stay calm during a public security accident and reduce losses where possible.

(China Daily December 5, 2005)