POLICE in Liangshan in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province have taken Huang Hongbin, the Chairman of the Suo Ma fund, for questioning over allegations that the school has violated government safety standards for school buildings.

    The Suo Ma fund is one of the largest NGOs focusing on rural education in Sichuan Province.

    The Suo Ma Hua primary school in Liangshan was in the limelight in recent weeks, after an essay written by an orphaned student studying in this ramshackle school went viral.

    The 300-word essay penned by 12-year-old Muku Yiwumu, of the Yi ethnic minority unleashed an outpouring of compassion when netizens dubbed her composition “the saddest essay ever.”

    But all the media attention that the school had received had prompted local authorities to pay closer attention to the school.

    That is when they realized it was an “illegal construction,” built in a forest with wood, without many of the safety considerations required for a school building.

    The local authorities claim that the primary school has been engaged in “illegal trading and occupying State-owned forest land”.

    The local government has now decided to pull it down.

    The local authority also claims the Suo Ma fund does not have the relevant authorization to build a school.

    The move has caused a heated debate among netizens. Many question whether this decision is directly related to the essay and some of netizens say the authorities should have paid closer attention to conditions in rural schools much earlier.

    (SD-Agencies)