QUNFUDA/AL-AHSA/JIZAN: 105 girls and staff were evacuated from Wasanib Primary and Intermediate School Saturday after chunks of cement began falling from the ceiling in one of the classrooms. Local Education Department officials were called to the site to inspect the rented school building and ordered evacuation as a precaution. No one was hurt in the incident. Civil Defense inspectors who made a preliminary survey described the evacuated building as “extremely old” and “unsuitable for use” and alternative premises were immediately rented in the same area. Hashim Al-Hiyani, head of the Education Department in Rijaal Alma', said that a female committee had been set up and tasked with inspecting all rented school buildings for girls' schools in the region to ensure that safety standards are met. Further north in the west of the Kingdom, a kitchen fire led to the evacuation of 500 girls from a school complex in the town of Qawz, south of Al-Qunfuda. Five authorities, including the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and police, oversaw the evacuation which they said was conducted in a safe and orderly fashion. Investigators are seeking to establish the cause of the fire. Wall collapse at new school A day earlier the collapse of an exterior wall in the yard of a girls' secondary school in Al-Hofouf brought panic to teachers and pupils. The building had only been opened two months ago. Education officials immediately ordered repairs, although the Civil Defense was not called to the scene. A Civil Defense official said that his office, the municipality and regional Education Department should send officials to inspect the building and others in the vicinity. “I want to know why they didn't report it to us,” the official said. “The fact that the building is new and only opened at the beginning of this school year means that it's essential to check its safety conditions inside and out.” Concern at the state of girls' schools in the Kingdom, many of which rent aged buildings, was joined late last week by worries over conditions at institutes of higher female education, following a stampede at Jizan University as students fled from falling ceiling tiles at a newly constructed complex. The Saudi Gazette reported last week that the stampede began when 3,000 female students were given the order to evacuate. No one was seriously injured, although eight persons were admitted to Jizan General Hospital. The incident was blamed on the lack of a proper evacuation plan. The six-month-old building – rented by the university - displayed cracks in some of its walls, and the Civil Defense ordered it closed until inspected and declared safe.The regional head of the Civil Defense added that his department had never issued a permit for the building. 70% absent Sources at Jizan University said Saturday that the first day back since the incident saw absenteeism of 70 percent, despite university authorities reassuring parents and students that reports from three specialist engineering firms and one independent engineer had declared it safe. “There is still concern over the cracks and chunks of ceiling possibly falling, and parents and students obviously don't trust the university's statement that the building is safe,” the source said. Students themselves said they preferred to believe their own eyes. “You can see cracks in the walls on the inside and outside of classrooms, and some classrooms have been locked while others are open,” said one student who preferred not to give her name. “The floors are also clearly on a slope.” A university statement following Wednesday's incident cited engineering reports that described the “cracks” as the “natural engineering gaps” between sections of the multi-part building that form part of the construction's plans. “Contrary to what some people think, they are not cracks in the building structure,” the statement said.
