CHENGDU - THE site lies barren and silent now after it and large swath of Sichuan Province was hit by a massive earthquake on May 12.

But come September next year, when the next school year starts for Chinese children, this site in Mianzhu city of southwestern China is expected to be filled with much buzz as a brand new school will likely be ready for them.

The site is just next to the one where the Wu Du Primary School once stood which crumbled during the quake.

It is one of seven schools to be rebuilt, together with a children service centre, in severely-hit areas in Sichuan with money raised for the victims of the earthquake by a Mediacorp Channel 8 charity show held in May.

A total of S$10.25 million were raised during the show, which was broadcast live on May 25, and telecast again on June 1. Some 350,000 donor calls were made while more than 200 businesses also contributed to the fund.

'The sum of S$10.25 million is the biggest we have managed to raised so far from our people for any charitable cause,' Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC, who is also the adviser to the fund-raising working committee for the Sichuan earthquake, told reporters yesterday, after visiting Mianzhu with Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say.

Mr Lim and Acting Mayor Chen Xinyou of Deyang City, which governs Mianzhu, agreed that re-construction of the Wudu primary school should begin by year-end.

Besides Mianzhu, some of the other schools will go to Mianyang, Shifang, Yaan, Dayi, and Renshou. A few, if not all, should be completed in a year's time, Mr Yeo said.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.