BEIJING, May 23 -- Local governments and schools have been told to promote student health and physical education (PE) courses.

Three circulars published on Friday by the Ministry of Education (MOE) call for measures to ensure adequate exercise for students.

The circulars respectively focus on encouraging student participation in sports activities, schools' improvement of PE lessons, and local education departments' implementation of teaching supervision.

Primary and middle school students should spend at least one hour each day on sports, according to one circular on primary and middle school PE assessment.

The circulars also called for an examination and assessment system for students' physical health.

A national standard for student physical health should be established and implemented. Schools nationwide should organize physical examinations for all students annually and report the results to a national database, the circulars said.

Health conditions will be considered in performance assessments for schools and relevant government departments.

Any school identified with deteriorating student health for three consecutive years will be evaluated as unqualified, even with excellent performance in teaching other major courses.

Wang Dengfeng, director of the Department of Physical, Health and Arts Education of the MOE, called for more government spending on building school sports facilities and sports venues.

He also urged guarantees of student safety during sports and revealed that the ministry is considering issuing a regulation on better prevention of campus sports injuries.

PE in China has improved in recent years, but it is viewed as a weak link in education, with a lack of an assessment system and sufficient teachers and facilities, which has restrained the development of students' health.

According to a national survey on students' health starting in 2010, physical fitness of college students has followed a slow declining curve, while more and more primary and secondary pupils are overweight.