Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court in northern China has sentenced the head of a kindergarten and an accomplice to death for killing two children with poisoned yoghurt, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.

Pingan Kindergarten head Shi Haixia and accomplice Yang Wenming killed two children with rat poison injected into a bottle of yogurt last year, in a revenge attack aimed at a rival kindergarten, Central Kindergarten in Hebei province, which had higher enrollment.

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Zhang Zengxia was given a five-year jail sentence for selling the illegal dangerous materials, the report said.

Two village sisters, a 5-year old and a 6-year old, found a bag that had a pen, notebook, and yogurt inside on their way to Central Kindergarten and drank the yogurt when they arrived home. They were found "foaming at the mouth" by their grandmother. One died before reaching hospital while the other died after receiving treatment.

Local officials said the motive for the poisoning was the illegal competition among kindergartens without license.

"I could not believe that was true," said a teacher from Pingshan County.

"No one cares what the children have learnt. Everyone only wants to earn money," a parent said.

Local villagers also said that no one cares about the education quality of kindergartens anymore. Opening an unlicensed private kindergarten has become a business.

Many children in China's countryside are taken cared of by their grandparents because their parents have migrated to cities to work.

There is a large need for educational institutes for young children in the countryside, and with the shortage of state-run kindergartens, competition among private profit-driven institutions can be intense.

It wasn't clear if the two will appeal their death sentence. China's Supreme Court must review all death sentences, said CCTV.