"Because my daughter was the last one who got on the van and she sat close to the door, she was able to be rescued," he was quoted as saying. "Those who sat far from the van's door were unable to get out."

Tong Boliang, 59, said he was relieved his grandson traveled with a different van that day, according to Xinhua News Agency.

"If he had been slightly late and took the second van, I might have lost him forever," he was quoted as saying.

Most of the children's parents were migrant workers, and they used the unlicensed kindergarten because there is no other preschool in the region, Xinhua reported.

The township government has agreed to pay 480,000 yuan ($77,000) in compensation to each family who lost a child, China News Service reported.

Pictures of the children's small shoes and schoolbags near the pond sparked public sympathy on the Internet, and many netizens questioned why there have been so many school bus accidents in recent years.

Last year, a nine-seat van carrying 62 students and two adults collided with a coal truck in Northwest China's Gansu province, killing 21 people.

Wang Xuming, a former spokesman for the Ministry of Education, called on parents to make their children's safety a top priority.

"There are too many risks for children to go to school by bus or by boat," he said.

Local governments have spent too much on fleets of official cars, and if one-third of that money were spent on school buses instead, the situation would be better, he said.

The Jiangxi government has ordered a provincewide safety overhaul of school transportation.

An investigation in December 2011 by the Jiangxi Education Department found that more than 90 percent of overloaded school bus incidents discovered in the province took place in private kindergartens, according to a Jiangnan Metropolis Daily report on Dec 22, 2011.

Contact the writer at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

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