The official blamed the accident on the concrete's poor quality and on shoddy construction. Two of the 14 injured were in serious condition, while the others suffered slight injuries, the police official said. There were 53 students in the class at the time, but most of the students at the Number Six high school were out in the school yard, which led to fewer casualties, the official said. Damage to other classrooms was minimal.
Building collapses are common in China, where a rush to develop has led to builders cutting corners.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on Wednesday called on the government to increase education funding to help the many communities which cannot afford to repair or rebuild rundown and dangerous school buildings. Education spending has been growing at less than two percent a year in recent years while defence spending has been rising by an average of 15 percent annually, the centre said. The government had promised in 1992 that the amount spent on education would reach four percent of GDP by the year 2000. The accident comes on the heels of a more serious school incident in southeastern Jiangxi province where 13 kindergarten children died in a fire officials said was caused by school staff carelessly placing burning mosquito coils close to the children's beds while they slept.