Too much pressure and not enough sleep are common problems among China’s primary and middle school students. One out of every three students suffers psychological problems, and 66.6 percent find it hard to fulfill their burden of study, according to a survey of 20,000 students in 500 classes at Beijing’s primary and middle schools by the Psychology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Educators say that although today is an era of freedom and opportunity for Chinese youth, it is also one of unprecedented pressure, particularly in cities.

Angst and Anxiety

“I really hope he comes in the top ten of his grade, because each year ten graduates from his school enroll in key universities.”

This comment by the parent of a middle school student endorses the results of a survey conducted by the China Youth and Children Research Center (CYCRC), whose results showed that 83.6 percent of parents expect their middle school student children to rank among the top 15 in examinations. As Sun Yunxiao, vice-president of CYCRC, says, “This is an almost impossible task, taking into account that there are often 50 students in one class. It is an expectation that makes many children lose confidence and believe they are failures at the age of 14.”

Academic scores are paramount within the Chinese educational system. Students with the highest marks gain entry to key universities, which have the best educational resources, as regards advanced educational concepts and top standard teaching and equipment. They also provide a student with intelligent classmates, and are the best starting point for a successful career. This being the case, key universities are the desired goal of every high school student.

“High academic scores are synonymous with success because there is no other criterion in the current educational system,” says seasoned educational researcher Zhao Xia. A recent survey entitled “Living Conditions of Middle and Primary School Students” indicates that despite the extreme pressure to achieve high marks exerts on students, none can suggest an alternative way of gauging academic ability. Although scholastic pressure must be borne by students in every country, specialists agree that in China it is exacerbated by the single-child family phenomena, whereby the future welfare of parents rests on the shoulders of just one offspring.

Opportunities engendered by China’s economic prosperity have given rise to the thirty-something millionaire phenomenon, for example, Huang Guangyu, 37, president of the Gome Group, who topped Rubert Hoogewerf’s 2005 China Rich List with assets valued at US $1.7 billion; Chen Tianqiao, No. 3 on the list, 33, chairman of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., whose assets valued at US $1.4 billion; and No. 4 Ding Lei, 35, founder of Netease, whose assets valued at US $1.2 billion. “This has made young people restless in the knowledge that if they are sufficiently astute and hardworking, a fortune is just waiting to be made,” says Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at the People’s University of China.

In principle, the single-child policy means that young people have greater access to wealth. But a couple today must have the means to support their parents and grandparents in addition to their child. This obligation is a source of stress and insecurity.

“I hate to press my son Ma Yu, especially as he is only 14, but if he lags behind in his studies he will be reprimanded by his teachers and mocked by his classmates. When there are several children in a family not all of them need to excel academically, but these days every household relies on just one child to maintain it in the future. There has never been such pressure on children to achieve,” says Ma Yu’s mother, media worker Zhang Rong.

Parental Pressure

For the majority of young people, life is a tightly arranged schedule of relentless competition and constant comparison with classmates. Many complain that as their parents believe they know what’s best for them, they arrange their lives without bothering to consult them or ask their opinion.

Dong Xinyu, aged 16, is a new student at a key middle school in Beijing. She is interested in archaeology and history, and has considered enrolling in theological seminary. “My mom often tells me off for daydreaming. She wants me to study architectural design, but only because my cousin majors in that subject, and because it’s what she wanted do when she was young. I am now totally confused and don’t know what subject I should select,” she says, disconsolately.

Fifteen-year-old Zhu Chen’s mother works for a foreign company. He says, sulkily, “My mom often says that she is far more tolerant with me than her parents were with her, but still nags and makes me think that everything I do is wrong. I get far more support from my friends.”

Zhu’s mother explains, “I want him to avoid the mistakes his father and I made and succeed in his career. But he never listens to us, and complains that we do not understand him.”

Precious Pleasures

Dong Xinyu says that her favorite leisure activity is watching white clouds float through a blue sky.

Every child has his or her own preferred pressure outlet. Ma Yu likes to be left alone at home for one afternoon a week to read and cook. He says it helps him to relax.

On-line chatting is also a popular pressure release. Of China’s 20 million Internet users 35.9 percent are young people aged between 15 and 24 years old who average eight hours online per week.

For children who spend the bulk of their time studying, the Internet is the best alternative to more time-consuming sportive hobbies. A survey of the Internet life of middle school students indicates that 60.7 percent of them play one-line games, 34.1 percent chat, and the rest look for information and send e-mails. Ma Junjie, chief of the survey project, concludes that middle school students regard the Internet as a form of entertainment and socializing rather than an information-seeking channel.

“My daughter surfs the Internet two to three hours a day, mainly to chat on-line. At first I was worried that it might affect her academic studies,” says Ms Xu, whose daughter is a grade two student at junior high school. To her delight, however, her daughter’s academic scores have not been adversely affected.

School authorities are paying ever-closer attention to students’ psychological problems, and many have specialized departments dealing with problems relating to study overload.

New Approaches

Although high academic scores remain the main means of entrance to key schools, there is a new wave of comprehensive training within education. Students are encouraged to develop hobbies and interests and to take part in after-class activities, such as nature studies, history, sci-tech, and model airplane building. Participation is included in their scores for each semester. Dong Xinyu is all for this program. She explains, “As after-class research projects occupy most of our spare time, the school has become more flexible about homework and allows us to hand it in a week after it has been assigned.”

The Experimental Middle School attached to Haidian District Teachers Training College is a well-known non-government-invested middle school. Its reputation has attracted students from many other provinces. “Our school is equipped with a simulated car driving lab, a mini machine tool operating system, and Apple computer design lab, and offers courses in robot assembly, pottery, cooking, sewing, and flower arrangement. They are all aimed at enhancing students’ practical skills,” says Teacher Mo, proudly.

The school also has overseas teachers on its staff. Teacher Liu Liran comments, “Having sat in on foreign teachers’ classes, I am impressed at how they seldom tell students what and what not to do. Their method is to explain the positive and negative aspects of an issue and let students decide for themselves.” This, Liu acknowledges, is in sharp contrast to the traditional Chinese way of teaching, which is, “ …to tell students what to do, but never why. That means that when they make mistakes, the blame goes on teachers or parents as students are disallowed responsibility. Having observed this difference in approach I feel positively enlightened.”

During summer and winter vacations the Experimental Middle School sends teachers and students abroad to study. To date, 300 students and 30 teachers have visited Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada. The school also has an exchange program with sister-schools Thornbury Darebin College in Australia and Dewang Middle School in Seoul, ROK.

After China’s successful Shenzhou VI manned space flight, many Beijing middle schools held model spacecraft building classes. Other recent extra-curricular activities include spoken-English contests, spurred by the fast approaching 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Sun Yunxiao of the China Youth and Children Research Center concludes: “Young people are becoming increasingly precocious, and will eventually know far more than their parents or teachers. A broader, more open approach to education will nurture the creativeness of today’s young generation, and enable them to find their best way of offsetting pressure and so achieve their potential.”