A tripartite committee consisting of the Education Administration, Civil Defense and Jeddah Police has been set up by Prince Misha'l Bin Majed Bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah, to check the safety measures at all the city's schools. The committee met Wednesday to work out an action plan to check all schools as quickly as possible. Ahmad Al-Zahrani, Assistant Director of Education in Jeddah, said the plan includes short and long term measures aimed at ensuring the highest safety standards at all schools. Meanwhile, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) wants to question the Civil Defense about its alleged late arrival at the Bara'em Al-Watan School, the scene of a fire which claimed the lives of two teachers and injured 46 students and teachers. The human rights watchdog also wants to probe allegations that rescue operations were hampered because the school was so overcrowded that pupils had to be taught in the corridors. The Civil Defense has responded by saying that no one should jump to any conclusions until investigations have been completed by the Control and Investigation Board (CIB). A CIB report is expected to be issued in the next few days. Informed sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette the CIB wants to check the Civil Defense's preliminary investigation report with testimony gathered from teachers, students and bystanders. Hussein Al-Shareef, Supervisor of the NSHR branch in Jeddah, said his organization wants to meet officials from the Civil Defense and Education Administration in Jeddah this week to discuss the allegations. Al-Shareef said the NSHR has information that shows the school has 900 registered students, which exceeds the school's capacity. This situation had allegedly resulted in the school administration converting some of the corridors into classrooms which hampered the rescue operations. He said the field inspection team also found that the number of emergency exits were not sufficient. __
