SHANGHAI, Sep. 4 -- MORE than 1.6 million primary and secondary school students in Shanghai yesterday started their new fall semester with an extra spring in their step - thanks to a later arrival time.

And from this semester, 370 new buses painted bright yellow and bearing a purple "school bus" sign will begin running in local streets.

The initiative is part of new school bus-management rules.

School buses rented from professional auto companies must have the vehicle's and driver's information registered with local education authorities.

Rented vehicles should also carry the unified school bus logo to raise safety awareness, officials said.

So far more than 1,370 rented school buses have been officially registered, with 750 drivers receiving special training programs, said the Shanghai Education Commission.

Locals are also encouraged to report school buses that fail to bear the unified logos to the commission.

Traffic police will start citywide spot checks from September 15 to stamp out unregistered school vehicles. Violators will be banned from operating in local streets.

Yesterday, local primary and secondary school students were allowed to arrive at school up to 45 minutes later in the morning, a measure that the commission initiated to ensure longer sleeping hours.

Primary school students are required to get to school at 8:15am, compared with 7:30am, or even earlier, in previous semesters. The new check-in time for secondary school students is 8am.

"Later school times not only enable me to sleep more, but my mom doesn't have to get to the office so early to match my schedule," said Feng Yue, a 12-year-old boy whose mother has to take him to school before going to work.

Feng is not alone. A survey conducted by the commission showed that the new policy was welcomed by nearly 90 percent of parents and 71 percent of students.

And first and second-year pupils will see their Chinese, maths and English course content reduced from this year, which is expected to ease pressure on children, officials said.

The Shanghai Committee of the Chinese Youth League also announced yesterday that it will distribute 323,000 copies of extracurricular books donated by local youngsters to more than 300,000 migrant school students in the city.