Wangu Township’s Integrated School

Located in the western part of the Sichuan Plain, Mingshan County covers an area of 614m² with a population of 268,000 in 9 towns, 11 townships and 192 villages. The County currently has a total of 120 schools with 34,681 students and 2,149 teachers.

The County’s quality of education has shown significant improvement during the recent years based on the results of the primary school district tests and assessments. Its middle school graduates also have ranked first in the entrance examinations for 7 successive years. Furthermore, the percentage of high school graduates to enter universities was the highest in the region.

Wangu Township covers an area of 27km² and is located on the northeast part of Mingshan County with a population of 10,000. It has jurisdiction over 8 villages and 48 agricultural cooperatives, typically produces tea and rice.

During the May 12, 2008 earthquake, Wangu Zhongxin Primary School and Wangu Chuji Middle School, which their campuses are few hundred meters away from each other, were both severely damaged by the devastating event. On May 18, the provincial and local authorities performed safety assessments on these campuses, and declared the remaining buildings to be dangerous and recommended them to be demolished, except for the main building at the Chuji campus, which will be renovated and enlarged at the expenses of the Government.

Instead of reconstructing each of these schools, the Mingshan County Government decided to combine them into a single integrated school campus at the current site of Wangu Chuji Middle School. In addition, 3 nearby village primary schools, Muojiacun, Xinzhongcun and Shahecun, will also be incorporated into this new integrated school. When the construction is completed, Wangu township integrated school will house 1,200 students ranging from pre-school to 9^th grade and 50 teachers.

In addition to this proposed construction project, Mingshan County Government also plans to self-finance an 8,000m² sports compound for the new integrated school at the current site of the Wangu Zhongxin Primary School at a later date.