Although the final factors that caused the wall collapse are yet to be confirmed, a photograph posted by a netizen after the incident shows there was at least one serious crack in the wall before it collapsed. If the school's facilities were substandard, whoever gave them the green light should also be held accountable and anyone found to have engaged in malpractice or dereliction of duty should be brought to book.

This is the latest in a series of fatal incidents of wall collapse in schools. In November 2013, the fence of a school in Luzhou, Sichuan province, collapsed, causing the deaths of three students and injuring six, less than two months after the collapse of a school wall in Xiangtan county, Hunan province, which killed two students. A similar wall collapse in a school in Anlong county, Guizhou province, in October 2010, killed five people and injured nine. As a matter of fact, students in the country have frequently been the victims of safety incidents in recent years, including food poisoning and school bus accidents.

Students are the future of China and their healthy growth represents the hope of the country. Any accident involving students should spur the authorities to make greater efforts to ensure their safety.

Following the accident at Tongren Middle School, the authorities should conduct safety checks on schools nationwide to identify and eradicate any potential threats. They should show zero tolerance toward safety accidents involving schools and students, and ensure that anyone putting young lives at risk pays the price.

The newly revised safety production law, approved by the country's top legislature at the end of August and put into force on Dec 1, stipulates harsher punishments for and tightened supervision over safety violations. The country should not let this law be reduced to useless decoration and empty words at the cost of more young lives.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. wuyixue@chinadaily.com.cn