The biggest challenge facing the Ministry of Education is the safety of students, Education Minister Yuan Guiren said when he attended a group discussion among political advisers in Beijing on Tuesday.

"We have more than 200 million students at different levels of schools across the country and care about every one of them. Any single accident happening to a student would break our hearts," Yuan said. He added that it requires the participation from the whole society - families, schools and the government - to work together in order to better protect students.

"All of us should shoulder the responsibility of ensuring students' safety so that they could grow up to be the talent of the country," he said.

Yuan also said the ministry will continue its efforts to help more students from remote mountainous regions and poverty-stricken areas to be accepted by prestigious universities in China.

"The number of such students top universities plan to recruit has increased from 10,000 in 2012 to 75,000 last year," Yuan said, adding that students from all ethnic areas of China will also be included in this recruiting plan in 2016.