By Brendan John Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-02-15 16:06

Earlier this month the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with 16 other ministries, released an eight-year national plan aimed at tackling youth mental health issues.

At the heart of the strategy is the incorporation of psychology courses into the curriculum of 80 percent of schools in urban areas and 50 percent in rural areas by 2010.

Counseling offices will also be set up initially in 40 percent of middle and elementary schools in urban areas and 10 percent in rural areas.

For psychology and social work graduates who previously found it difficult to find a job, the announcement will be welcomed.

More importantly for those out in the communities who have been struggling, be it parents, teachers, and China’s youth, the recent plan will be music to their ears.

We should never forget the extreme challenges China’s students, parents and teachers face when compared to their western peers.

Here it is common for children as young as six to be assigned several hours of homework each night. Then they are sent to extra classes on the weekends, to learn English or music, math or calligraphy. Before these children have even had a chance to be kids, they are competing academically with their peers.

American mental health professional Dr Gregory Mavrides who has lived and worked in China for several years says, "In America, any parent would dance for joy upon finding that their child was reading anything, even the television listings in the daily newspaper, let alone a magazine or work of fiction. In China, children are often punished by their parents, and, in some areas, their teachers, if and when they are caught reading anything other than assigned textbooks. In this context, there is simply no psychic energy left over for doing anything other than preparing for the next exam."

Compounding the situation is the continuing family planning policy, where most elementary and middle school students have no siblings to talk to when the pressure gets too much. In such situations friends become increasingly important, yet they too are under similar strains and are not equipped to offer practical emotional advice.

Both parents are often working and it has become increasingly common for children to now reside at school dormitories for six nights of the week returning home late Friday afternoon to spend just two evenings with the family. Alternatively, for those students who may still live at home during their schooling, a grandfather, an aunt or an uncle may be the primary care giver yet here there is a big generation gap.

Ask many young kids how was the recent Spring Festival and they will say "bu hao wan" meaning "no fun". Reason being, they had extra homework and were made to attend extra lessons to get a head start for the new upcoming semester.

Once they enter middle school, many teenagers will then start having special classes as early as 7 am and then two extra evening classes before closing books by 10:30 pm, but for many it is well past midnight.

Adding to their woes changes in social security and the closure of many state-owned enterprises has seen welfare, retirement, health care and housing issues placing great strain upon extended families and it is the young who shoulder these future responsibilities.

That's why youth find Internet bars provide a temporary safe haven where gaming, role-playing and online chatting connects them to a like-minded community distancing themselves momentarily from what can be an oppressive reality.

For those students in the countryside the situation is just as challenging. Many of their parents work away in the urban areas as migrant workers and only see them once a year when they return home for Spring Festival.

We should not be surprised when the manifestation of all this pressure on China's youth appears in the form of net addiction, childhood obesity, growing self-centeredness and reclusion.

Thankfully, the Chinese are a robust lot and most do not crack under the strain. The brightest minds are headhunted and embraced by the world's best universities and are later granted work visas for such multinationals as Microsoft or Monsanto. Even the average Chinese student who is fortunate to study abroad, when placed alongside their international peers rank highly at a tertiary level, thanks to their rigorous academic upbringing.

As the education system constantly adapts, the government's recent holistic approach to mental health in the education sector is a welcome addition to an already crammed curriculum.

Ideally for the future when students are feeling overwhelmed they will now have more resources at their disposal to cope and be able to find more effective ways for managing their affairs rather than isolating themselves or gravitating towards self destructive anti social behaviors.

Expect long lines queuing outside those counseling offices come 2010 and expect many parents and teachers to be dazed by their child's insistence that they are now suffering from previously unheard of ailments such as attention deficit disorder or chronic fatigue syndrome, conditions at times almost pandemic in western societies today.

E-mail: brendanjohnworrell@hotmail.com