NANCHANG -- China's efforts to promote the "balanced development" of compulsory education, which usually means narrowing inter-regional, rural-urban or inter-school gaps in terms of education conditions and quality, has borne fruit, the Ministry of Education said Tuesday.

According to the ministry, the balanced development of compulsory education has been achieved in 2,717 counties, representing 92.7 percent of counties across the country.

Tian Zuyin, chief of the ministry's educational inspection department, said that there has been steady improvement in educational conditions of schools since 2015, with 338 counties investing 254.4 billion yuan (about $38 billion) to build 1,598 new schools and expanding nearly 40,000 existing schools.

A State Council directive on the balanced development of compulsory education issued in 2012 foresees that by 2020, the balanced development of compulsory education should be achieved in 95 percent of China's counties.