The number of students killed in the devastating May 12 earthquake in southwestern China last year is still under calculation.

"We will publicize the result after we finish the calculation," said Wei Hong, deputy governor of Sichuan, who is attending the annual session of the Chinese legislature.

Earlier reports said that thousands of students had been killed in the magnitude 8.0 quake and officials were believed to bear some responsibility in relation to shoddy construction of school buildings.

After the earthquake, they had pledged greater efforts to investigate why many schools crumbled while nearby buildings stayed erect.

About 87,000 people feared dead in the earthquake.