'Hope primary school' to be sold to pay off debts

A Hope Primary School in Yushu village, Harbin City, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, will be sold to repay building debts incurred during its construction, CNTV.cn reports.

The undated photo shows the Kasanohara Hope Primary School in Yushu village, Harbin City, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province. [Photo:/CNTV.cn]

The Kasanohara Hope Primary School, sponsored by a Japanese investor named Yoshioka Toshimitsu in 2002, is the only primary school in Yushu.

Peng Bo, the Party chief of Yushu Village, said the total cost to build the school was 520,000 yuan, but the Japanese invested 5 million yen (250,000 yuan), and the construction company paid 208,000 yuan in advance. Although many years had passed since the school was completed, Yushu Village still had no ability to repay the building costs.

Peng added that after the school was completed, half the classrooms remained unused, and the school was now unsafe because there was no wall around it and the roof had started to leak. In response, the village committee decided to sell the school in an attempt to repay the debt and build another primary school with eight to 10 classrooms.

Peng also confirmed that several people had already expressed interest in buying the school.

Yang Shengfeng, the principal of Kasanohara Hope Primary School, said he heard about the school being put up for sale from the villagers who reacted strongly to the news because they did not want it to be sold.

Schools built in poverty-stricken rural areas through donations and sponsors can be deemed Hope Primary Schools by the China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) after they register with the local Communist Youth League Committee.

But Zhu Deshan, director of the Yushu Village Committee, said other companies had invested in the school, and it had not registered with the local Communist Youth League Committee.

Gu Wei, director-general of the Heilongjiang Provincial Youth Development Foundation, said the Kasanohara Hope Primary School did not belong to the CYDF now, but if the school completed all the formalities, it could still register.

Huang Fu, office director of the Shuangcheng municipal education bureau, said the bureau was unwilling to see Kasanohara Hope Primary School sold, but it had no right to intervene.