A security volunteer (1st,L), a better-equipped guard and a teacher stand at the door of a primary school in Shijingshan District, Beijing, to protect students leaving school on Thursday, May 6, 2010. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

China's central and local governments have shifted into high gear to ramp up school security following a string of attacks on schools, and school security in Beijing has been on the highest alert as well.

"Shijignshan District is no exception, and the Babaoshan sub-district office is leading the sub-district to tighten campus security," He Yaping, deputy director of the Babaoshan sub-district office in west Beijing's Shijingshan District, told CRI on Thursday.

According to He Yaping, the office has deployed better-equipped guards to both kindergartens and all eight primary and middle schools in the Babaoshan sub-district.

"The security work focuses on four periods every day when school children are going to school or leaving school. At least one police car begins to patrol around every school or kindergarten at seven in the morning, and some 6,000-7,000 policemen are involved in the patrol in Beijing. Meanwhile, two to four security volunteers from the local community patrol in front of each school or kindergarten from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily," he said.

He Yaping said that Beijing has held government officials and school management accountable for any campus security breaches and will enforce stern punishments.

He noted that the Babaoshan sub-district has organized departments from industry and commerce administration, public security and transportation to jointly improve security in nearby schools and kindergartens.

Furthermore, one deputy headmaster at each school will be assigned to take charge of school security, and schools have held security classes to enhance the sense of safety among students and parents.

Zhang Li, a teacher at a kindergarten in the Babaoshan sub-district, expressed her satisfaction with the current campus security clampdown.

"Our kindergarten has delayed opening for half an hour in the morning. Every morning, not only eight teachers and one doorkeeper in our kindergarten, but also policemen and security volunteers are on guard duty," Zhang said.

Moreover, Zhang hopes the daily security measures will last a long time.

"These actions will of course be a strong deterrent to school crime, and I hope they will form a fundamental system," Zhang said.

Zhou Yunqing, a sociology professor at Wuhan University, suggested that local governments not only tighten campus security, but also solve livelihood issues when tackling campus security problems.

"In fact, our work at the grassroots level wasn't good in recent years. As more and more problems involving people at the bottom of society went unsolved, the common people lost faith in society and solved their problems by themselves in brutal ways," Zhou said.

"As long as all the local governments really highlight the livelihood issues in accordance with the central government, and tighten campus security at the same time, I believe school attackers will surely become fewer and fewer," Zhou advised.

A string of attacks on school and kindergarten children occurred last week in China.

On April 30, five kindergarten children and a teacher were injured when a man attacked them with a hammer before killing himself at a school in Weifang City, east China's Shandong Province.

On April 29, 29 children and three adults were injured by a man armed with a knife at the Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing City, in eastern Jiangsu Province.

And 16 children and a teacher at a primary school in Guangdong Province were attacked on April 28.