Education spending at 4 percent of the GDP should be the minimum for China's central and western regions, National People's Congress deputy Yu Guoqing said Monday.

"I hope the central government can invest more on education in central and western regions and other less-developed areas," said Yu who heads the Department of Education of Jiangxi province.

He called for more detailed and useful measures to support teachers in rural schools.

"We need to develop compulsory education in a balanced way and also address the issue of school bus safety," he added.

The Jiangxi education department plans to invest 61 billion yuan ($9.6 billion) on education in 2012, a 14 billion of increase from 2011. In a bid to bridge the gap between urban and rural schools, a major part of the funds will go to remote and poor areas, rural primary and middle schools and rural teachers, Yu said.