SHANGHAI, June 7 (AP) - A 16-year-old girl's suicide after she was barred

from a key exam underscores mounting worries over academic pressures, as

millions of Chinese students began annual college entrance tests on
Wednesday.
The three-day exam has a 9.5 million high school students across China
competing for just 2.6 million university places. For kids and parents alike,
it's a nail-biting ordeal that experts say causes undue emotional distress.
'Pressure from study and exams is a top reason for psychological problems
among Chinese youth,' said Jin Wuguan, director of the Youth Psychological
Counseling Center at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital.
In China's increasingly success oriented, pressure-cooker cities, academic
stress is seen as a rising cause of youth suicides and even murders of
parents by children unhinged by overwhelming pressure to perform.
According to her family and newspaper accounts, 16-year-old Wu Wenwen
drowned herself after she was stopped at the exam room door because her
hair wasn't tied back as her school required.
Returning in barrettes, she was then told the end-of-term exam had already
started and she was too late to take it. In tears, Wu called her mother, and
then disappeared. Her body was found the same night in a nearby lake.
China doesn't keep comprehensive statistics on student suicides, but Jin said
health care professionals see the problem worsening, even among
elementary students. Wang Yufeng, of Peking University's Institute of
Mental, estimates the rate of emotional disorders such as depression and
paranoia among Chinese students under age 17 at up to 32 per cent - a
total of 30 million students. Others say that figure may be as high as 50per
cent. A survey last year by the government's China Youth and Children
Research Center showed 57.6 per cent of students felt highly distressed by
academic pressures.

STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL DISORDERS BY ACADEMIC PRESSURES

Pressure from study and exams is a top reason for emotional disorders
among youth. Academic stress is a cause of suicides and murders of parents
by youth.
In china, there is an exam crucial for high school students because is viewed
as definitive to future career and financial success. The exam has a 9.5
million high school students across China competing for just 2.6 million
university places. Wu Wenwen, a 16-year-old girl, drowned herself due to
that could not perform the exam.
Increasingly this problem is worsening. The rate of emotional disorders of
Chinese students under age 17 is approximately a 32 per cent according
Wang Yufeng.