China had allocated some 39.9 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) from the central government budget to improve school facilities in poor rural areas by the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Education on Monday.
The program, which was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance in 2010, was targeted at rural schools in the country's western and central regions, as well as poor areas in Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian provinces.
Under the program, school facilities such as classrooms, dormitories, playgrounds, canteens, toilets and drinking water supply have been improved, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Education on its website.
For instance, the average dormitory area per capita for boarders in primary schools across the country was about 3.1 square meters in 2012, an increase of 24 percent from 2009, the ministry said.
So far, school canteens have covered most rural schools in 699 counties in China's poverty-stricken areas, in an effort to improve nutrition among rural students, it said.