Supervision of kindergartens is being stepped up after a third case of a toddler dying after being left alone on a school bus, said the Ministry of Education yesterday.

"Private kindergartens must make the safety of children their top priority," the ministry said.

Two-year-old Qiu Chenyang suffocated after being confined in a school bus for seven hours on Monday when temperatures topped 34 degrees Celsius.

The boy boarded the bus to the Aixin bilingual kindergarten, in Daliang County, Guangdong Province, about 8:30am, according to a report in Guangzhou Daily.

His mother, Wang Yanni, told the paper: "When I took him to wait for the bus, he said he wanted to eat some steamed buns, but I could not find anywhere selling buns.

"When the school bus came, Yangyang was still crying because I did not buy the steamed buns for him, but I let him get on because I was worried about letting the teachers wait too long for him."

Wang believed the kindergarten teachers wanted to punish the boy for crying and deliberately left him on the bus, only to forget about him.

However, the teachers had said they forgot to take the child from the school bus, but not to punish him.

"The distance between my home and the kindergarten is very short, and I believe he was still crying when he arrived at the kindergarten. The teachers must have heard him when the other children got off the bus," Wang said.

He was taken to hospital at 3:48pm and declared dead at 4pm.

Police are investigating the case, less than a month after a 20-month-old boy suffocated after being forgotten in a school bus in Foshan City, Guangdong.

The Ministry of Education has issued an urgent notice requiring local governments to thoroughly inspect private kindergartens as all three tragedies occurred in private kindergartens.

(Shanghai Daily September 22, 2007)