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　　The deaths of 11 children in a van accident prompted China's Ministry of Education on Tuesday to call for closer protection of the nation's schoolchildren, just two weeks after a knife assault at another Chinese school galvanized the public.

　　In a circular issued on Tuesday, the ministry described such events as 'heartbreaking' and singled out the Monday crash involving a school van from a privately owned kindergarten in China's southeastern Jiangxi province。

　　In that accident, 15 children--aged between four and six--and two adults were traveling in a van designed to hold seven passengers when it veered off the road and plunged into a pond in a rural area in the vicinity of Guixi city in the Yingtan municipality。

　　Three died on the spot while eight more died later a local hospital, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency。

　　Local police cited in the Xinhua report said the accident was caused by improper driving by the kindergarten's 35-year-old principal。

　　Citing local officials, Xinhua said the principal, whom it named as Zhou Chun'e, was detained after an investigation. The school--which Xinhua said had been running without a license for eight years--was closed, it said。

　　Most of those who died were children of migrant workers, living with grandparents as their own parents had left to work in cities, Xinhua said。

　　The circular from the ministry also highlighted other recent incidents, including a knife attack on Dec. 14 that injured 23 children and a villager in the central province of Henan. It also cited an incident on Dec. 19 in which a female high-school student was abducted and gang raped in Shaanxi province, in the northwest of the country。

　　Separately, Xinhua said a man who was upset with a court ruling after his daughter was murdered drove a car into a group of students during their lunch break in north China's Hebei province on Monday, injuring 13. The report, citing local officials, alleged that Yin Tiejun lit a bottle of diesel, trying to burn down the car after hitting the students. Police officers found a gas tank and firecrackers in the trunk, but Mr. Yin said the weren't part of the attack, Xinhua said。

　　The incidents--which come in the same month as a shooting attack at a school in the U.S--follow a string of high-profile attacks on children in China in recent years. The events have raised questions about treatment of mental health in China, where such issues are still considered taboo by many。

　　The Dec. 14 attack also raised questions about school security in China. Local media reported have said school security was lax on the morning when a man armed with a kitchen knife injured the 23 students. The reports also criticized local officials for being unresponsive in the wake of the attack。

　　'Can we not start to pay attention to students' safety issue only after a terrible accident happens?' said one person on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog service, a de facto national forum in a place where political discussion is tightly controlled, where the Monday accident was a much-discussed topic. 'Can we do something practical to prevent it from happening? How many times must this kind of accident happen?'

　　The ministry's statement outlined steps aimed at increasing protection offered to young children, calling for increased safeguards against traffic accidents, greater security at schools and stepped-up vigilance during the winter months to prevent death and injury from fires, carbon monoxide poisoning and accidents related to ice skating。

　　The ministry said schools should carry out safety education programs ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday--a period when skating and fireworks-related accidents are common。

　　日前中国发生的一起校车事故造成11名儿童死亡，促使教育部周二要求对学童进行更加严密的保护。仅仅两周前，中国另外一所学校发生凶犯持刀伤人事件，引发了公众的强烈不满。

　　教育部周二在一份通知中称这类事件令人心碎，并特别提到了中国东南省份江西一所私立幼儿园周一发生的校车事故。

　　Zuma Press校车事故中一名受伤的儿童在江西贵溪市人民医院接受治疗。该事故导致11名儿童遇难。在江西鹰潭贵溪市农村发生的校车事故中，一辆载有15名年龄在四到六岁不等的儿童和两名成人的面包车侧翻坠入水塘。面包车的核载人数是七人。

　　据新华社报道，三人当场死亡，另有八人在当地一家医院抢救无效死亡。

　　新华社援引当地警方的话报道说，这起事故是由幼儿园35岁的园长驾驶不当造成的。

　　新华社援引当地官员的话说，经过调查后幼儿园园长周春娥被刑拘。报道说，这所幼儿园已被关停。新华社说幼儿园已经无照运营了八年。

　　新华社说，大部分遇难者都是留守儿童，因父母外出到城市务工而与(外)祖父母一起生活。

　　教育部发出的通知还提到了最近发生的其他事件，包括12月14日中部省份河南发生的凶犯持刀刺伤23名儿童和一位村民的事件。通知还提到了12月19日西北省份陕西发生的一起事故，在那起事故中，一名初中女生被劫持到校外遭多人强暴。

　　新华社还报道了另一起事件，周一在中国河北省，一名男子在女儿被害后不满法院判决，驾车冲向一群学生，导致13人受伤，当时正是学生午休的时间。报道援引当地官员的话说，殷铁军在撞伤学生后点燃了一瓶汽油，企图把汽车烧毁。警察在车后备箱里发现了一个煤气罐和爆竹，但是殷铁军说这些东西与袭击无关。

　　上述事件与美国一起校园枪击案发生在同一个月。在此之前，中国近几年已经出现多起备受关注的袭击儿童事件。这些事件引发了关于中国精神健康治疗的疑问，很多人仍将精神疾病视为忌讳。

　　12月14日的袭击案还引发了针对中国校园安全的疑问。当地媒体报道说，在前文所说的那名男子携菜刀砍伤23名学生那天上午，学校安保工作非常松懈。报道还批评地方政府在袭击发生后反应不力。

　　在与推特(Twitter)类似的新浪微博(Sina Weibo)上，一名用户写道，我们能不能不是只有在发生事故之后才开始关注校园安全？在政治言论被严格控制的中国，新浪微博已经成为全国性的论坛，周一的事故是新浪微博上的热议话题。这名用户说，我们能不能付出实际行动防止此类事件的发生？这种事故还得发生多少次？

　　教育部的声明提出了增加幼童保护的措施，包括要严防发生交通安全事故，切实落实校园安全防范措施，积极预防火灾、煤气中毒、滑冰溺水等冬季常见事故。

　　教育部说，各地教育部门和中小学校要在春节假期前对学生开展安全教育，春节假期是滑冰和燃放鞭炮引发的事故的高发期。