Despite many student casualties at schools in Sichuan Province that collapsed during the Wenchuan earthquake, the Anxian Sangzao Middle School near the epicenter managed to save the lives of all its pupils by training them to react to such an emergency.

The school's principal had held regular emergency drills every year prior to the quake.

An editorial in the Beijing Youth Daily urges other schools across the country to conduct similar drills to show students how to safely escape when fires, blackouts or earthquakes occur.

The newspaper notes that the Shijin Garden Primary School in the country's capital Beijing has taken the lead by holding emergency drills on a regular basis.

In addition, the education office in Beijing's Dongcheng district requires all its primary schools to perform emergency drills at least once a semester.

But the article notes many other schools are still reluctant to conduct emergency drills, let alone come up with detailed procedures to ensure well-designed ones.

With regard to this situation, the paper urges educators to pay special attention to the advantages of regular emergency drills. It suggests they add emergency response education to their curriculum.

The article also stresses that the Wenchuan earthquake should remind school authorities that they should take every possible measure to prepare their students to deal with emergencies.