BEIJING - School safety inspections in rural China last year disqualified 13,000 substandard school buses from service.

The inspections, jointly organized by the ministries of education and public security and the State Administration of Work Safety, also removed 32,000 unlicensed drivers from their jobs driving school buses, according to official figures.

School bus safety is a perennial public concern in China, especially in remote rural areas, where supervision is slack.

In May last year, two children were killed and 21 others injured after a kindergarten bus fell into a pond in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The vehicle was not licensed as a school bus and had not been subjected to an annual check. It was running with a twofold capacity when the accident happened.