Parents pool money to buy air cleaner for classroom  

北京个别小学家长担心雾霾 凑钱为学校购净化器

[Photo: Chinadaily.com]

(ECNS) -- Parents of students at a primary school have gotten together to buy an air cleaner amid a week-long attack of smog, as they found out their children were sitting in a classroom with the windows open, the Beijing Morning Post said.

A parent surnamed Zhang, whose child studies at a primary school in Xicheng district, found that a window in her child's classroom was open when the whole city was blanketed by a thick veil of smog.

She later talked about it with other parents on an online platform. All of them were worried that open windows would let in smog, and it was unhealthy for students to stay in a classroom with stale air.

They agreed to buy an air cleaner, with each paying 70 yuan (about $11) for the equipment and its maintenance.

In Haidian district, not all the windows at two schools were closed on smoggy days, reporters found.

An official from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education said it ordered schools to ban outdoor activities, but closing windows was not compulsory.

Two private schools in Beijing's Shunyi district built two gyms with filters for PM 2.5 in the air, according to a report in Southern Metropolis Daily last year.