Chinese kids sickened by school pressure: Study

[Choppers]

Chinese kids sickened by school pressure: Study

Paris: A third of Chinese primary schoolchildren suffer from psychological ill-health due to classroom stress and parental pressure, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The problem is so bad that urgent measures are needed, warns the study, led by British and Chinese researchers. It surveyed 2,191 pupils aged nine to 12 in nine schools in urban and rural Zhejiang, a prosperous coastal province in east China.

81% said they worried “a lot” about exams, 63 % feared being punished by the teacher, 44 % had been physically bullied at least sometimes—with boys likelier to be victims than girls—and 73 % had been physically punished by parents. Most of the children complained they struggled to cope with the amount of homework.

Over one-third reported headaches or abdominal pains—psychosomatic symptoms of stress—at least once a week. The most stressed children reported aches or pains four times a week.
The investigation, led by Therese Hesketh, a professor at University College London (UCL) Centre for International Health and Development, blamed the extreme competitiveness in the education system, right from primary school.

“The competitive and punitive educational environment leads to high levels of stress and psychosomatic symptoms,” the authors say. “Measures to reduce unnecessary stress on children in schools should be introduced urgently.”

The paper appears in Archives of Disease in Childhood, a peer-reviewed journal of the British Medical Association (BMA). The “urban” setting for the study was Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, while the “rural” setting was a poor county in Quzhou in the province.

It explains the demands for academic excellence and intolerance of failure. One factor is the country’s dramatic rise in prosperity, creating “previously unheard-off possibilities for upward mobility” and in turn pressuring children to do well. Other reasons are China’s one-child policy and the Confucian traditions of respect for parents and elders, filial piety, obedience and discipline.

“The aspirations of many parents, who had limited educational opportunities themselves are now invested in their only children,” it says. AFP

 

[grey boy 2]

Chinese kids sickened by school pressure only ?

I am so glad they haven't got beaten up badly and being victims of

evil......abuses though.

 

[FreekiN]

Are you sure its ONLY chinese kids, sometime I feel like doing something nuts.

 

[Communist]

Chinese kids sickened by school pressure only ?

I am so glad they haven't got beaten up badly and being victims of

evil......abuses though.

A few hours ago there was a thread China scared by Avatar or something like that where the same poster tried to twist facts so that he can post anti China comments.

But I got the thread deleted. Here another thread created by him for the same purpose.

Lets create another thread in response.

 

[Communist]

By the way grey report the thread because the topic is in no way related to General images and multimedia.

I have already reported.

 

[Communist]

Just 44% Class 1 kids know English alphabets (of course, in India!!!)
TNN, 16 January 2010, 12:10am IST





NEW DELHI: The scare raised by the Supreme Court on Thursday about China being poised to overtake India in English proficiency is about to come true. The annual audit by Pratham, a well-known education NGO, reported on Friday that the ability to read and comprehend English varied wildly across India and only 43.8% of class I kids could read the alphabets, even in big capital letters.

It's worse than the average in many states. Gujarat is the worst with barely 25.3% class 1 children able to read capital letters. Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Jharkhand are only marginally better at 33.4%, 34.5%, 36% and 41.8%, respectively. In the south, Karnataka, despite its hi-tech glitter, scores just as bad only 37% of class I kids could pass the simple English test.

In short, the much-touted advantage that India enjoys over China because of its knowledge of English, could vanish pretty soon unless there is all-round recognition of the looming crisis. Education experts say that unless English is made compulsory in school, India might be in an irreversible slide.

In Kerala, the knowledge of English appeared the best with 85% of kids reading capital letters, West Bengal was way below at 57%. The entire north-east and Himachal Pradesh have scored well.

Pratham's Annual Statistics of Education Report, the only private audit of elementary education in the country, was written after a survey of 575 out of 583 rural districts and 3.38 lakh households involving nearly seven lakh children.

The good news is that a lot more children are going to school. As many as 96% children in the age-group of 6-14 are in schools. In other words, access to education has dramatically improved; the issue is the quality of education being imparted.

In mathematics, for instance, it's only marginally better. Just 69% of class 1 students could recognise numbers between one and nine. The figure for states like Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and UP hovers between 50% and 60%, while all north-eastern states and Kerala are much better with more than 90% of their children recognising the numbers.

Alarmingly, things get worse as kids go up to higher classes. By class II, the national average of children who can recognise numbers between 11 and 99 declines to 54.6. And by class V, percentage of children who can do division comes down to 38%. MP and HP record relatively high levels topping the chart with over 60% of children in class V able to solve division problems. Chhattisgarh is the big success story showing the jump from 31% last year to 59% this year. Even in Kerala only 45% children of class V can do division. Goa is the best at 80% children doing division successfully.

In the case of English, performance improves after class V. Till class V many states show the falling trend of students either able to read words or sentences. It can be gauged from the fact that while in class V the all-India average of students who can read sentences is 25.7%, by class VIII it goes up to 60.2%.

But the decline till class V is noticeable. Many states like Gujarat, Jharkhand, Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, English language skills falls dramatically in class V. Even southern states follow the same trend. Take the case of Kerala. In class V only 54.5% children can read English sentences. In Gujarat it is abysmally low at 8%. In Tamil Nadu, only 19% children of class V can read sentences while in Uttar Pradesh it is 14%. Bihar remains more or less consistent at 31.3%.

In class VIII all the north-eastern states, except Tripura, Goa, HP and Kerala more than 80% of children can not only read simple sentences fluently but also understand the meaning.

Just 44% Class 1 kids know English alphabets - India - The Times of India

 

[DesiGuy]

it's just a news.


and i don't know why the heck drag India in it?


This forum quality is going down day by day.

 

[Communist]

it's just a news.


and i don't know why the heck drag India in it?


This forum quality is going down day by day.

Just 44% Class 1 kids know English alphabets - India - The Times of India

The scare raised by the Supreme Court on Thursday about China being poised to overtake India in English proficiency is about to come true.

Just a news, no offense.

 

[DesiGuy]

Just 44% Class 1 kids know English alphabets - India - The Times of India



Just a news, no offense.

um..It is offense.

this thread news is latest and than you just brought another news from 3 days old in here just to insult India.

Anyways if you don't understand this common sense, i pity this forum who has senior member like you.


oh wait, if you think i am wrong, let's have a vote from neutral members and see who is wrong.

 

[Communist]

um..It is offense.

this thread news is latest and than you just brought another news from 3 days old in here just to insult India.

Anyways if you don't understand this common sense, i pity this forum who has senior member like you.


oh wait, if you think i am wrong, let's have a vote from neutral members and see who is wrong.

The thread itself is a flame bait.

By the way, the news I posted is related to China as well as india as your Supreme court and Times of India say. The news is also related to the standard of school kids in both China and india.

Yes I do not understand commonsense because my commonsense says you will get votes by indian members.

I could have opened a separate thread, but I did not just for the sake of avoiding flame bait.

 

[DesiGuy]

The thread itself is a flame bait.

By the way, the news I posted is related to China as well as india as your Supreme court and Times of India say. The news is also related to the standard of school kids in both China and india.

Yes I do not understand commonsense because my commonsense says you will get votes by indian members.

I could have opened a separate thread, but I did not just for the sake of avoiding flame bait.

Whether you agree or not.

you posted this thread in response to that news.

Anyways you won't accept that, so in order to prevent more flaming, just let it go.

 

[grey boy 2]

Whether you agree or not.

you posted this thread in response to that news.

Anyways you won't accept that, so in order to prevent more flaming, just let it go.

Before we carry on this debate, lets check out the intentional flaws of

the thread starter, than we can made a good judgement on his

purpose of the thread.

No link, why ? =because some of the contents from the original

link was being deleted, here is the original article;

Chinese children sickened by school pressure: study - Yahoo! News

Mon Jan 18, 7:19 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – A third of primary schoolchildren in China are suffering from psychological ill-health as a result of classroom stress and parental pressure, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The problem is so bad that urgent measures are needed, warns the study, led by British and Chinese researchers.

The investigation surveyed 2,191 pupils aged nine to 12 in nine schools in urban and rural Zhejiang, a relatively prosperous coastal province in eastern China.

Eighty-one percent of the youngsters said they worried "a lot" about exams, 63 percent feared being punished by their teacher, 44 percent had been physically bullied at least sometimes -- with boys likelier to be victims than girls -- and 73 percent had been physically punished by their parents.

Most of the children complained they struggled to cope with the amount of homework they were assigned.

Over one-third reported headaches or abdominal pains -- psychosomatic symptoms of stress -- at least once a week. The most stressed children reported incidence of aches or pains of four times a week.

The investigation, led by Therese Hesketh, a professor at University College London (UCL) Centre for International Health and Development, pointed the finger at extreme competitiveness in China's education system, from the onset of primary school.

"The competitive and punitive educational environment leads to high levels of stress and psychosomatic symptoms," the authors say.

"Measures to reduce unnecessary stress on children in schools should be introduced urgently."

The paper appears in Archives of Disease in Childhood, a peer-reviewed journal of the British Medical Association (BMA).

The "urban" setting for the study was Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, while the "rural" setting was a poor county in Quzhou prefecture, in the west of the province.

The study highlights some of the complexities that, it says, explain the demands for academic excellence and intolerance of failure.

One factor is the country's dramatic rise in prosperity, which has created "previously unheard-off possibilities for upward mobility" and in turn stoked pressures on children to do well at school.

Other reasons are China's one-child policy and the Confucian traditions of respect for parents and elders, filial piety, obedience and discipline.

"The aspirations of many parents, who had limited educational opportunities themselves are now invested in their only children," it says.

Previous studies on school-related stress and its impact on health are few and generally come from Scandinavia.

A 2008 assessment among 10- to 13-year-old in Sweden found that 21 percent of boys of 30 percent of girls experienced headache, and 17 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls experienced abdominal pain at least once per week.


Now if the last two par. were not being deleted,

Its does prove the statistic show on Chinese kids in China will not be

compare to some other studies of different countries.

The last par. also show kids 10-13 years old in Sweden also

experienced abdominal pain, so thats explained Chinese kids 's

symptoms was not a special case.

 

[super_star]

Before we carry on this debate, lets check out the intentional flaws of

the thread starter, than we can made a good judgement on his

purpose of the thread.

No link, why ? =because some of the contents from the original

link was being deleted, here is the original article;

Chinese children sickened by school pressure: study - Yahoo! News

Mon Jan 18, 7:19 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – A third of primary schoolchildren in China are suffering from psychological ill-health as a result of classroom stress and parental pressure, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The problem is so bad that urgent measures are needed, warns the study, led by British and Chinese researchers.

The investigation surveyed 2,191 pupils aged nine to 12 in nine schools in urban and rural Zhejiang, a relatively prosperous coastal province in eastern China.

Eighty-one percent of the youngsters said they worried "a lot" about exams, 63 percent feared being punished by their teacher, 44 percent had been physically bullied at least sometimes -- with boys likelier to be victims than girls -- and 73 percent had been physically punished by their parents.

Most of the children complained they struggled to cope with the amount of homework they were assigned.

Over one-third reported headaches or abdominal pains -- psychosomatic symptoms of stress -- at least once a week. The most stressed children reported incidence of aches or pains of four times a week.

The investigation, led by Therese Hesketh, a professor at University College London (UCL) Centre for International Health and Development, pointed the finger at extreme competitiveness in China's education system, from the onset of primary school.

"The competitive and punitive educational environment leads to high levels of stress and psychosomatic symptoms," the authors say.

"Measures to reduce unnecessary stress on children in schools should be introduced urgently."

The paper appears in Archives of Disease in Childhood, a peer-reviewed journal of the British Medical Association (BMA).

The "urban" setting for the study was Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, while the "rural" setting was a poor county in Quzhou prefecture, in the west of the province.

The study highlights some of the complexities that, it says, explain the demands for academic excellence and intolerance of failure.

One factor is the country's dramatic rise in prosperity, which has created "previously unheard-off possibilities for upward mobility" and in turn stoked pressures on children to do well at school.

Other reasons are China's one-child policy and the Confucian traditions of respect for parents and elders, filial piety, obedience and discipline.

"The aspirations of many parents, who had limited educational opportunities themselves are now invested in their only children," it says.

Previous studies on school-related stress and its impact on health are few and generally come from Scandinavia.

A 2008 assessment among 10- to 13-year-old in Sweden found that 21 percent of boys of 30 percent of girls experienced headache, and 17 percent of boys and 28 percent of girls experienced abdominal pain at least once per week.


Now if the last two par. were not being deleted,

Its does prove the statistic show on Chinese kids in China will not be

compare to some other studies of different countries.

The last par. also show kids 10-13 years old in Sweden also

experienced abdominal pain, so thats explained Chinese kids 's

symptoms was not a special case.

GB, do you have any english news website in China??

How many you have can you past some links here. So that we will know what is happening there.

 

[shchinese]

pressure? sure, there are a lot in our society.

thousands students wait outside of a library in a 3rd class university in China.


the success we achieved in the past 30 years was not given to us by someone, we earned it.

 

[shchinese]

GB, do you have any english news website in China??

How many you have can you past some links here. So that we will know what is happening there.

We don't have many of them. Chinese people don't need to learn English to be successful - that is a pretty huge difference between you and me.