"National Higher Entrance Exam" pressure.
The "National Higher Entrance Exam" is China's equivalent of A-Levels. The kids sit 6 exams in most provinces. They have to do a core exams in Chinese, Maths and an MFL (usually English but sometimes Russian or Japanese) and 2 from either Geography History or Politics or Chemistry Physics and Biology.
It's affectionately (or not so affectionately, depending on your point of view) called the Gao Kao. I'm not sure what the official translation of that is, but if I were to ask the kids, they'd probably admit it could be translated as "Intense amounts of pressure from parents, schools, provinces, universities and themselves" (if they got English irony).
Apparently it has an adverse affect on some kids health here, especially amongst those that struggle. We had a suicide here ourselves last weekend. The pressure got so intense for the kid that he jumped out of a dormitory window. The school doesn't seem to have done much to commemorate the kids death either, which isn't really surprising given it'd hardly present them in a good light.
It's affectionately (or not so affectionately, depending on your point of view) called the Gao Kao. I'm not sure what the official translation of that is, but if I were to ask the kids, they'd probably admit it could be translated as "Intense amounts of pressure from parents, schools, provinces, universities and themselves" (if they got English irony).
Apparently it has an adverse affect on some kids health here, especially amongst those that struggle. We had a suicide here ourselves last weekend. The pressure got so intense for the kid that he jumped out of a dormitory window. The school doesn't seem to have done much to commemorate the kids death either, which isn't really surprising given it'd hardly present them in a good light.