Why Are So Many Primary and Secondary School Students Jumping to Their Deaths?

Primary and secondary school students in mainland China carry heavy backpacks, with some staying up until the early hours to complete homework, breaking down in tears. (Video screenshot)

People News - Recently, reports of primary and secondary school students jumping to their deaths have surfaced intensively across China. In Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, three middle school students from the Western Affiliated Middle School could not bear the overwhelming burden of homework and jumped off a building hand-in-hand, taking their own lives. Additionally, reports from Wuxi allege that five other students coordinated a collective suicide by jumping from a school building.

In response, the Education Bureau of Suzhou Industrial Park issued an open letter to all parents in the district, announcing the implementation of a "Homework Suspension Mechanism". Under this measure, students in primary school, middle school, and high school will have designated times to complete homework: 9:20 PM for primary school, 10:00 PM for middle school, and 11:00 PM for high school. Students who do not finish their assignments by these times will be required to go to bed without making up the incomplete homework. Insiders have remarked, "These three students' deaths forced the education system into reform within the district."

Just before this, several districts in Wuhan canceled their midterm exams. Netizens revealed that from October to early December, over 30 children had jumped to their deaths in Wuhan alone—a horrifying statistic. Many online commentators believe the cancellation of midterms in Wuhan was also a result of students tragically sacrificing their lives to demand change.

Additional widely circulated videos claim that 100 children in Shenzhen jumped off buildings within three months. Recently, news emerged from Tengzhou Experimental Senior High School in Shandong Province, reporting four student suicides within a month. Earlier, a middle school student in the third grade jumped to their death, but when the parents sought justice, they were detained by authorities.

These heartbreaking incidents leave many mourning the loss of young lives and questioning: What has driven these children to such despair? Many teachers have spoken out on social media, criticizing China’s education system as warped and pathological, driving both students and parents to madness.

Parents have shared their struggles, saying: Primary school children often stay up until 11 PM to finish their homework. Middle school students wake up at 5:30 AM, go to bed at midnight, and cannot return home for a midday break. In some schools, students attend classes from 7 AM to 11 PM, with only one day off every two weeks. Their weekly study hours can exceed 100 hours, causing severe physical and mental harm.

One mainland teacher posted on social media, suggesting that schools should eliminate all homework unrelated to actual learning—such as hand-copied posters, mandatory attendance tasks, staged photo uploads, and assigned videos to watch. Many of these assignments are pointless political tasks. While regular coursework already overburdens students, schools and supervising authorities refuse to reduce the amount of political education content, wasting students' time while making these tasks mandatory.

A post from X-platform account "Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher" revealed that on December 11th, Mianyang Experimental School forced all students to sign a "Special Management Ordinance" to declare their "voluntary" acceptance of strict management. Students who refused to sign were threatened with being sent home to "study independently" and being publicly criticized within their grade. Yet, once signed, students even lost the freedom to leave school on weekends.

The ordinance, worded in an extremely authoritarian tone, begins with a list of "Ten High-Pressure Rules," such as disrespecting teachers, hiding mobile phones or other electronic devices, improper relationships between male and female students, leaving school without permission, staying out overnight, or hiding dangerous items like controlled knives.

The main text divides violations into three categories: "routine violations," "serious violations," and "extreme violations." Students are required to: "Be in the classroom by 7:10 AM and stand to read aloud until 7:30 AM." During evening self-study, they must maintain "absolute silence," refraining from: speaking, sleeping, eating, daydreaming, reading novels or magazines, passing notes, using mobile phones, listening to or playing MP3/MP4 devices, walking around the classroom, fetching water, roughhousing, or leaving without permission. In the "extreme violations" section, Rule 6 states: "Maintain a healthy mindset and a positive attitude. It is strictly forbidden to address conflicts or escape responsibilities through extreme means. Students must not request leave to avoid study or give up after encountering minor setbacks or disappointing test results."

The ordinance is filled with authoritarian terms such as "prohibited," "must," "strictly forbidden," "banned," and "eliminate," suffocating students with fear and pressure. Yet, the school requires students to sign the document under the guise of "voluntary compliance," essentially forcing them into an involuntary agreement—a modern version of a "contract of servitude."

Netizens reacted with outrage: "Factories for slaves! Producing slaves in bulk!" "This is worse than a prison!" "Concentration camp!" "Leaders of these psychiatric schools in this psychiatric country are the real lunatics." "Does this school feel they don’t have enough students jumping to their deaths?" "Chinese education is slavery!" "This kind of strict school management severely violates students' rights."

Why Are Schools Treating Students Like Prisoners or Psychiatric Patients? To understand this, one must look at the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) goals for education.

Education, in essence, is meant to cultivate individuals—developing character, nurturing talents, and empowering students to pursue happiness. The German educator Johann Friedrich Herbart believed that education's ultimate goal is to instill personal character and social morality.

In contrast, the CCP’s educational policy focuses on producing "socialist builders and successors with all-around moral, intellectual, physical, artistic, and labor development." At its core, the CCP aims to train individuals who conform to its ideology. Under a system that prioritizes "Party loyalty over humanity," the CCP uses education to indoctrinate students into loving the Party leader, obeying the Party, and following schools and teachers. The ultimate goal is to transform students into obedient tools of the regime. As such, schools have become the CCP's first arena for enslaving and conditioning China's population.

This explains why the CCP enforces high-intensity, long-hour study routines that overload students with homework and test preparation, forcing them to immerse themselves in a sea of academic drills. The aim is to keep students too occupied to think independently, making it easier for the CCP to brainwash them and cultivate a new generation of submissive and enduring citizens.

In every country around the world, only communist states use education to relentlessly instill political ideology. The guiding principle of education under the CCP is politics, and every decision revolves around it. While students are living, thinking individuals, the CCP instead suppresses their thoughts and distorts their humanity.

Today, anxiety and depression are widespread among students of all ages in China. Many children experience academic burnout, school refusal, internet addiction, self-harm, or even suicide. Throughout history, no regime—except the CCP—has inflicted such cruelty on its own younger generations, depriving them of freedom, extinguishing their hope, and stealing their happiness, leaving them with no will to live.

△ (First published by People News)