In a bid to promote the nine-year compulsory education system in the early 90s, the government went on a school-building spree across the country, but the lack of financial resources led to a number of bad quality structures, especially in the less developed areas.

Though a series of reinforcement and reconstruction projects for rural school buildings have been carried out since 2001, "quite a number of the reconstructed buildings have not matched up to anti-quake standards, the ministry said.

In addition to the 8-billion-yuan fund, the government has asked all provinces to provide more financial support to the project and has invited sponsorship from the society.

A special working group will watch over the implementation of the reinforcement project, and especially keep an eye on the use of funds, the ministry said, adding the whole process will be transparent.

"We need an independent third party to supervise all the post-quake construction and management," activist Ai Weiwei, a professional artist who challenges the official earthquake death toll, told China Daily.

(China Daily May 19, 2009)