Some US$241 million in government bonds will be given to a project building classrooms and teacher's houses through 2012, the minister of Education and Training said at a conference Monday.

Nguyen Thien Nhan, also a deputy Prime Minister, has asked the ministry to draw up a list of localities that have used up the funds by June. The ministry and the Ministry of Finance will recommend which localities receive additional grants from the 2011 budget.

Leaders from the localities were asked to make use of their available land as the money would only be enough for construction, not land compensation.

Priority should be given to poor districts, Nhan said, repeating instructions from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The school construction program began in 2008. It received more than VND12 trillion ($642 million) in government funding over the past two years, including VND8,275 billion in government bonds. The rest of the money came from local funds and private sponsors. Around 95 percent of the bond value has been disbursed to build more than 55,700 classrooms, of which nearly 32,500 are already in use.