(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-23 22:03

BEIJING -- Inspectors from China's education watchdog will fan out across the country to conduct safety checkup at kindergartens, middle and primary schools.

"Five inspection teams have already been set up," a spokesman with the Ministry of Education said on Sunday.

The inspection will focus on the overhaul of "illegal school shuttle bus" and "unqualified kindergartens," said the spokesman, adding that dormitories, public toilets and other facilities in rural schools should be targeted to prevent trampling incidents.

The inspection teams will also check up the qualification of teaching staffs especially those in rural areas, the spokesman said.

A spate of on-campus tragedies have prompted the ministry to issue several notices to push local educational institutions to weed out hidden dangers.

In a recent incident, a two-year-old boy in southern China's Guangdong Province died of suffocation after being confined in a school bus for seven hours on September 17 when temperatures topped 34 degrees Celsius.