Psychological Health of the Youth Cause for Concern
1 Like many countries, China selects personnel on the basis of examination results. There is no doubt that examinations play a dominant role in propelling social progress. The university entrance examination system in China encourages students to study hard and acquire knowledge for the benefit of society, but China's huge population and underdeveloped economy preclude existing educational institutions from meeting the needs of all college applicants. In order to enter a school of higher learning, therefore, children are obliged to study very hard from a young age, and there is too much of a bias within Chinese education toward examination success. (杨露雯)
2 Yet children who enter a college are not necessarily all successful. Sociologists and educators have studied many \"success\" stories and discovered that most such students feel a sense of frustration and self-denial. This is because for so many years \"success\" has been the sole indicator of their value, and has distorted and debilitated their capacity to assess their other inherent qualities. Moreover, an entirely bookish education has deprived them of the chance to acquire psychological self-esteem, or to understand and apply practical social skills. Such students function adequately under smooth, uneventful circumstances, but once they encounter frustration or adversity, may react with excessive \"countermeasures.\" （徐秋菊）
3 It is reported that China currently has 30 million young people with psychological problems. Primary and middle school students facing psychological challenges account for between 21.6 and 32 percent of the total, and the figure for university students stands at between 16 and 25.4 percent. Both are on the increase.
No Chinese educational institution has yet established a psychological health system, and psychological education within primary and middle schools remains fundamentally nonexistent. Psychologists and analysts are also thin on the ground. In most cases, therefore, children are left to weather their own way through the course of their psychological development.（杨晶）