Pressure of maintaining GPA leads to horrific

suicide rates
Reporter 1 | 25 June, 2013

Students living in central China study
over 12 hours a day to maintain their
expected grade point average (GPA).
Each day, students come straight home
from school, and immediately start
studying and completing their
homeworkpiles and piles of booklets.

In the Sichuan province, a teenage girl,

aged 17, committed suicide by cutting her wrist and taking poison on the 22 June, 2013, the
day the exam results were released. She committed suicide before finding out her scores, as
she already knew that those scores wouldnt be able to get her in to university.

In Nanjing, in the Jiangsu province, a 13-year-old boy committed suicide by hanging himself
on 3 May, 2013 due to him not being able to finish his piles of homework after being in the
classroom for 12 hours.

Chinas education system is just about passing exams after exams. Masses of homework are
given to students every night, which cannot be completed in their given homework time. They
therefore have to work and study at home after their already long school hours. In addition to
the overwhelming homework amount, the adolescents have a lot of pressure on them from both
their teachers, as well as their parents. These two stress factors play a massive role in their
lives. and can lead them to feel very isolated and can ultimately cause mental health disorders,
leading to suicide.

Because of Chinas exam based education system, the pressure of passing the exams are very
high. Exams to attend the next level of education is in their second school semester, the first
half of the Gregorian calendar, and research shows that a higher amount of suicide attempts
and suicide cases occur in the first half of the year, rather than the second half of the year.

Statistics show that over 250,000 students commit suicide, whilst over 2 million attempt to,
every year, in both the main cities, as well as the rural areas. Of these numbers, 79% of the
suicides are made by middle and high school students due to stress over exams, the amount of
homework, and the pressure from their parents. Suicide is the number one cause of death
amongst Chinas youth.
The problems start from as young as six, when children enter school and find themselves
obsessively ranked against their peers with weekly examinations, which the children find
incredibly stressful said professor Hesketh to The Telegraph.

Many of these children are afraid of the punishment by their teachers and parents if they do not
receive good grades. Physical abuse as punishment for not scoring above 95% towards children
is very common in China.

Chinas one-child policy, which was demolished in 2016 may be one of the most prominent
reasons to why the pressure on the children is so high from the parents. Many children do not
have siblings, so their parents focus mainly on them, and expect them to do well in school.
Additionally, in families where the parents neglect their children, the students often try and
commit suicide as a way to get their parents attention. There are two major sides to these
problems, where parents either put too much pressure on the children, or they dont pay any
attention to them at all. There are many incidents where parents divorce, and dont know what
to do with their child. Other times, even as parents stay together, they do not know what to do
with the child, and leave them with their grandparents.

Chinas government itself has not commented on these terrible statistics, but there have been
many reports that discuss the education and government system in China, where they believe
that their own government and laws do not play a big factor in these childrens lives, because
through their education system, the students increase their knowledge and a majority of them
go to university, proving that their system cannot be that faulty.
Unstable minds lead to suicide
Reporter 2 | 25 June, 2013

Recent reports suggest that unstable minds, due to family

problems, have led many children and adolescents to commit suicide.
Statistics show that over 250,000 children commit suicide each year,
whilst another 2 million attempt to do so. These shocking statistics of
child suicide cover the entirety of China, where the suicide rates are a
lot higher in the rural areas rather than in the main, larger, more
developed cities.
A 17-year-old girl living in the rural area of the Sichuan
province committed suicide by cutting her wrist and taking poison on
the 22 June, 2013. Children living in the more undeveloped areas are
more exposed to harmful chemicals.
The education system in China is exam based, so students do Even though teachers and parents put pressure on these children, it is
have to study a lot during their second semester, around the beginning also the children themselves that want to succeed, and want to attend
of the Lunar New Year. This is because these students want to be their next level of education. They set their priorities straight, and
successful, and want to become someone relevant in their generation. know that school plays an important factor in their lives.
A 13-year-old boy living in Nanjing, in the Jiangsu province could not finish the homework expected to be completed for his
committed suicide by hanging himself on 3 May, 2013 because he education. With this education system in China, the students learn
how to manage their times, as well as how to prioritise the more
important sections in their lives.
There are many students with unstable minds due to increased
stress from completing their school work, as well as family issues.
The relationship between parents and their children differ, however
many relationships are not healthy, where physical and mental abuse
are commonly present.
China as a whole has not been able to fully develop like the
larger, main cities. Time and money is needed to be able to help
residents living in the rural areasto fix the smaller provinces.
Children living in the more rural areas have not been exposed to the
type of education that is offered in the main cities. Every country
develops in its own time, and now that Chinas economy is
flourishing, there is higher chance that many changes will be made.
According to Zheng Xinrong, a professor at Beijing Normal
University mentioned that there is poor communication between
parents and their children, where they put a lot of pressure on to them
by comparing them to their peers. Children, whose brains do not fully
develop until in their 20s do not know how to deal with these
pressures and their emotions.
There are new solutions being tested: Schools are starting to
implement the idea of a psychologist in schools, who students can see
on a regular basis to be able to talk to someone, and start to understand
their own emotions more. The government is trying to find a solution
that suits both needs, as Chinas students have had a history of
becoming incredibly smart, using Chinas education system. Many
people believe that the amount of school work is accurate, if the
students diligently work on them, as they learn good time
management skills.
Additionally, the child suicide rates are high, but they are not
as high as they were years ago. The numbers may seem high, but even
without the psychologists at the school, the number of suicides have
been decreasing in the past few years, proving that these children
know what they are doing, and understand that through this education
system, there might be pressure, but it will also lead them to great
success.