To stem violence and rising school accidents, China has stationed 24,000 police as security guards on campuses around the country in the past three months.

The police have mainly been assigned to kindergartens, primary and secondary schools all over China, preventing crimes and accidents, said Xu Hu, vice director of the public order management bureau of the Ministry of Public Security.

According to ministry statistics, police have cracked 5,018 cases of crime and 7,834 cases of public order offences relating to school safety from Dec. 2005 to Feb. 2006.

"The offences are mostly property related, including loot, robbery, and assaults," Xu said. "After strengthened surveillance, safety around campuses has been improved."

Xu said the ministry has also appointed 50,000 police heads in local bureaus to the posts of deputy principals in nearby schools in charge of legal affairs, teaching students on laws, providing legal aid and counseling.

Last November, a truck ploughed into a group of students who were out jogging, killing 21 and injuring 30 in North China's Shanxi Province.

In October, in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, five students were killed and three injured when their over-loaded school bus turned over.

Since then, the government has ordered all primary and secondary schools to conduct sporting activities on campus.

Police statistics also showed that 417 campus fires broke out in the second half of 2005, killing three and causing 1.56 million yuan (193,086 U.S. dollars) in damage.

Source: Xinhua