BEIJING, Dec. 29 -- About 51.7 million square meters of school buildings were built in 2015 in China, mostly in less developed areas, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Tuesday.

The country also spend over 28 billion yuan (4.32 billion U.S. dollars) on classroom equipment this year, the ministry said at a meeting on improving compulsory education in less developed areas.

Liu Limin, vice minister of education, said at the meeting that a special supervision regime will inspect new works in all regions during the first half of 2016 and asked local education departments to make funds available for the supervision.