Unfinished Homework Leads 3 Chinese Schoolgirls to Suicide

From iFeng:

In Jiangxi, 3 primary school girls hold hands and jump off a building to commit suicide because of too much homework

Yesterday [September 19th] around 2:10 in the afternoon, three primary schools girls were sent to The People’s Hospital of Lushan District in Jiujiang City, each and every one of them with pale faces, groaning. One of the girls was visibly bruised on the face, and her mouth was bleeding profusely. It is known now that these three girls, all about 10 years old, had failed suicide attempts to jump off a building before they were sent to the emergency room.

“If I’m dead, I won’t have to do homework anymore”

This reporter rushed to the 7th floor of the hospital’s inpatient department where he saw the three school girls under treatment.

10-year-old Huang Wanting told the reporter that she is in the fifth grade of Saiyang Center Primary School. Yesterday, she failed to finish her assigned homework and along with sixth-graders Wang Huan and Kong Huan, all did not go to school. The three of them stayed home and worked on their homework an entire day but still was unable to finish it. It was at this time that the slightly older Kong Huan raised the idea of ending their life by jumping off a building.

“I didn’t want to jump, but we all held hands and jumped off together”, said Wang Wanting, who was actually very afraid within, but was also afraid of being punished by her teacher to stand [in the corner or outside of the classroom as a punishment] for not having finished her homework.

According to Huang, the homework load this time was much more than usual, and if the math teacher (also the head teacher) finds their homework unfinished, the teacher will have them stand outside the classroom, or even outside the school, until the teacher calls them to come back in. Mindful of these, Huang Wanting and Wang Huan thought that Kong Huan was right about taking their own life by jumping off a building. In doing so, they won’t have to do homework any more. Hence, she [Huang] comforted her 7-year-old younger brother, then before went with her two friends to a residential building in their village, climbed to the second floor, and jumped off.

“They [the other two girls] originally wanted to have my brother jump together with us, but I know my family only has two children, we couldn’t both die”, said Huang Wanting.

Parents do not know the amount of homework assigned

Kong Huan’s injury is the most severe. The doctor said apart from a little Pneumothorax, she also had internal injuries and scapula fracture. When interviewed, she was extremely weak, not even able to make a sound. According to her grandmother, the child is ordinarily a little mischievous, but never imagined that she would jump off a building to commit suicide. When this reporter asked the child if she had a lot of homework, the grandma replied “it’s one homework booklet/notebook after another.”

School principal claims it is a one-time accident

After the incident, Zhou Qiliang, the principal of Saiyang Center Primary School rushed to the hospital, and even accepted this reporter’s interview.

Zhou Qiliang said, there were four students (including Huang Wanting’s younger brother) who didn’t go to school yesterday, and the relevant teachers also contacted these children’s parents that morning. In the afternoon, the school received a call from the Saiyang Police Station saying 3 schoolgirls were hospitalized after jumping off a residential house.

Zhou Qiliang said that he asked the teachers of those students and learned that the homework assigned this time is not actually considered much, just 3 hours of homework for several days of vacation. So why would the children want to jump off a building to commit suicide? Zho Qiliang said: “The police officers said that they climbed to the second floor via the bamboo beside the house and when they couldn’t find a way down, they chose to jump off”.

When asked if the teachers regularly pay visits to parents or communicate with the students, Zhou Qiliang didn’t answer directly, but only stressed that “this is an accident.”

A Chinese news report:

Comments from iFeng:

凤凰网网友 shwf314:

Anyway, the current education system is a damn failure. Teachers only care about the students during the years they are with them, not caring about the decades that come after.

凤凰网网友 jlbwyx:

What a crime, the despicable education system is making our younger generation suffer severely!!!! Remember how happy our own childhood was, when we could finish our homework within half an hour after school and then go enjoy ourselves as much as we could… I don’t know what’s wrong with this society these days… We can ignore the depravity of adults, but how can we compromise our next generation?!!!

凤凰网网友 南宁网友:

“Knowledge changes fate” has been the best advertising slogan for the interest groups to exploit the fat of the people. The industrialization of education has been another despicable means of plundering the property of civilians…

凤凰网网友 mjp1204:

Children are the flowers of the nation. But over time, educational departments attach importance only to the academic performance of students, not to the physical fitness and mental health of them, leading to some schools and teachers overloading students with homework, and some even using this as a means of punishing students, having students bent over their desks day and night to do repetitive pieces of homework that aren’t actually necessary. And after homework in handed in, teachers won’t check it by themselves; instead, some teachers ask students to do it for them. One direct consequence is that students are not physically fit, which is characterized by the increasing number of short-sighted students. Can the educational departments include physical fitness as a criterion when they assess the the qualification of schools? For example, they can offer students physical examination after students graduate. According to the myopia rates and other physical conditions, they can award the schools which have done well in such aspects. Or at least they can create in society an atmosphere in which schools are required to put emphasis on students’ physical fitness.
I hope the whole society can focus on this issue; don’t just talk about caring for the next generation, but focus on the many aspects of children’s growth. Don’t let children feel that dying is better than having to do endless pieces of homework assigned by teachers. Such sad children, such sad childhoods, such a sad education system of ours.

凤凰网网友 央央大国:

Examinations for as long as you live, China’s examination-oriented education is just niu.

凤凰网网友 zbt66:

Just who the hell is the head of the of Department of Education these days?

凤凰网网友 zgrm2010:

Teachers aren’t working hard in class. These days, many teachers don’t even use one piece of chalk in a month. You may not know this, [but do you know] the reason? Laziness!!! This is indeed the truth!!! Presently, most teachers don’t have their students digest what is learned in class, but instead assign overloads of homework to shirk responsibility!!! This is what I see with my eyes and what I hear with my own ears.

凤凰网网友 文文618:

I’m a middle school teacher, and parent of a primary school student. Some primary school teachers really do blindly assign homework — already in 5th or 6th grade but still having students mechanically copy large amounts of texts — which is not at all helpful in improving students’ thinking.

凤凰网网友 zhonghua1212:

An education that eats/consumes people!!!

凤凰网网友 我曹本事沧海客:

Isn’t this just another one of the innumerable of the crimes committed by teachers? When a student can’t finish their homework, you can absolutely patiently and gently talk students about it in an educating way, or maybe even admit to student that the homework you assigned has violated the regulations of the laws for the protection of minors. [Either way], is it necessary to force elementary school students into jumping off buildings to commit suicide? These teacher are truly behind the times. Who the hell do you think you are? You’re just a teacher, just making a living, that’s it.

凤凰网网友 whot:

This can’t be accidental!

凤凰网网友 yejanye:

I’ve seen a friend’s child who is studying in a primary school in Xianhu, Nanning City where the amount of homework is really excessive, and really meaningless. Each test paper must be copied 10! What’s the point?!?

凤凰网网友 qiqing3333:

I remember when I was in primary school.
Fuck, doing homework sometimes meant doing it until 12 midnight.
Then when I was a little older, became naughty/apathetic, my homework basically was never finished.
The next day after going to school, I would be punished to finish them outside the classroom….