784 students left in coldness after power cut off

Students at a private school for the children of migrant workers in Changping district in Beijing are facing excessive hardship after electricity to the school was turned off, the Beijing Times said in a report.

The school has 784 students and 28 faculty members and the lack of power has made life miserable during the winter, the report said.

"We had to light candles in the morning and evening. Since it was too cold to sleep in the dormitories, we just huddled together," said a teacher surnamed Yuan.

Power to the school was turned off as it came under an area earmarked for demolition by the district officials. "Since the school was only a tenant and not the owner of the property, the local village committee did not inform us about the demolition plan," said Li Junshan, head of the school.

Education department officials, however, said they are in talks with the local government officials to restore power supply to the school. The power outage still continued on Wednesday night, the report said.

School official Li Junshan said it was necessary to run the school till the end of the semester, so that students can be transferred to other schools.

"We have purchased a generator and it will be put into use on Friday," he said.