Officials chopped after kids found dead (2)

The five boys went out to play three weeks ago. When they failed to return, their families and teachers looked for them but had no idea as to their fates until the local police notified them, Tao Jinyou, father of Tao Zhonglin, said.

Tian said that local officials and teachers went door-to-door at the beginning of every semester to persuade children to go to school, but said many kids still tended to cut school or drop out to work.

"Firing officials is not enough. More efforts are needed from government and NGOs to make school attractive to children and warn them of the dangers of the outside world," Tian said.

Xu Wenqing, a senior program officer with the United Nations Children's Fund, on Tuesday called for more subsidies from governments to children without parental care.

"If local governments can give subsidies to children without parents around, their relatives will be more willing to help with the money. And more social workers are needed to help those children before they end up wandering on the street," Xu told a press conference.

After the tragedy, the Bijie city will establish a fund to support the left-behind children, searching for and giving help to every left-behind child in the city, the Xinhua News Agency reported.