Rather than taking into account all the demands of high school students - which range from teachers not being replaced for months, to outdated equipment or even overcrowded classes - some prefer to only take into account the extended hours that they denounce. In fact, some arrive at 8 a.m. and do not leave their establishment before 6:30 p.m., due to significant gaps in their days. Poor organization is a consequence in particular of the high school reform in 2019.
French high school students have therefore inherited the status of “lazy” on social networks, after comparisons with their foreign counterparts. Videos purporting to show Chinese high school students leaving school late have gone viral.
“While our 'students' are destroying everything in France, because they find that 27 hours of lessons per week, including breaks, is too much, Chinese high school students leave school at 10 p.m., often including weekends,” we can read on X.
In the same vein, the LR deputy Philippe Juvin had dared: “To the high school students I tell them to go back to work, to work hard, because the little friends in China, they work hard”, before qualifying: “I hear all the demands […] On the other hand, what is not legitimate is to burn down educational establishments”.
FAKE OFF
To begin with, on the videos published, they are students and not high school students. At this university in Hainan, everyone chooses their courses and therefore their schedules, according to the constraints imposed for obtaining the diploma. Students have also published their schedules and explain that they do not work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, that they even have entire days free or significant gaps in their days.
As for high school, it takes place over three years, from ages 15 to 18 in principle, and is not compulsory. To access it, you must have passed the entrance exam which allows, depending on the result, to choose an establishment with a higher or lower rating. A significant proportion of high school students are boarders.
The organization of the courses varies according to the provinces, but they generally start between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and end in the late afternoon, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. But for them, the day is not over since the high school students then have evening classes to revise, which can actually end at 9:30 p.m. or even 10 p.m.
Very strong pressure on Chinese students
But is the Chinese model really an example to follow? Children in China undergo significant pressure throughout their schooling, whether it is middle school to obtain their “Zhongkao”, the entrance exam for high school, then for the university entrance exam, the “Gaokao”. Moreover, many high schools are nicknamed “factories in Gaokao”. “Schools and parents associate long hours of study with success,” writes People’s Daily online, Chinese party media.
Several studies have highlighted stress, anxiety, and even depression among these young people. The results of one of them, published in BMC Psychiatry, in June 2023, showed “a high proportion of new cases of depression during the Gaokao period”. She particularly highlighted family factors, the pressure that can be put by parents in many cases, and underlined that it is “crucial, in China, to emphasize early prevention and access to care for depression in adolescents and young adults”.
Students who go as far as committing suicide
In some cases, this pressure even leads young people to commit suicide. In 2015, an elite school caused international controversy after installing metal bars on windows, as reported by The Guardian. The previous year, a student died in October and another in March after throwing themselves from the top of the school's buildings.
In 2025, the Suicide Research and Prevention Center of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, attached to the University of Hong Kong, previously estimated that there would be 976 suicide cases among primary and secondary school students.
