BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese educational authority has recently issued rules to ban corporal punishment at schools.

Educators are forbidden to use improper approaches to discipline their students, including corporal punishment, verbal abuse, collective punishment for individual violations and other methods that could harm students' physical and mental health, according to a set of rules issued by the Ministry of Education.

The rules also clarified the conditions under which educators can exercise disciplinary measures, as well as the scope of the punishments.

Students committing minor misconduct should only receive punishments such as writing self-criticism or taking part in classroom chores, said the rules, noting that more severe violations can be punished with approaches including being educated on school disciplinary policies.

Only senior primary school students and above can be punished with class suspension, said the rules.

The ministry issued a set of draft rules last year to solicit public opinions on the matter.

With the increase of controversial school-related discipline incidents, calls for clearer definitions and clarification on school disciplinary measures had become stronger in China.