May my Death Save you 100,000 Yuan.
Nobody can tell when it started but it is true that running schools has become
one of the most profitable businesses in this country ever since. The increasing rise of fees of schools has become people's everyday topic, and various stories come now and then, most of which unfortunately being tragic ones. Not any of
these mishaps seems miserable enough to catch enough attention and to cause any
change, though, and schools remain busy making quick bucks, at the same time giving the public the sob story about what a short budget they have to run on.
The heartbreaking event took place on 25th. Jul in NingXia Autonomous District
hit the headline and has drawn great attention of the government and its people
, who seem to have become more and more unconscious of such things, and this time things might be different:
A 13-year-old girl committed suicide at home by gulping down a bottle of pesticide on the day of her primary school graudation. Having long been under the pressure of school grades, the desperate girl left her parents an apologetic letter as follows,
"Dad, Mom,
I am sorry for what I am doing, but I don't have a choice. I am a bad student
. You work so hard everyday but I always make you unhappy. Please sell the shop and stop working after my death, and have a good rest for the rest of your life. Having raised me as long as 13 years, you must have spent a lot of money! Now may my death save you 100,000 yuan. Sorry, Mom and Dad. I am going to meet
my grandpa out there. Sorry, Mon and Dad, my brother and sister. I didn't live
up to your expectations! I am a problem student!"
The heartbroken parents later recalled that the girl must have overheard what
adults often chatted about the staggering fees for "choosing key schools", which
was said to be possible to be as high as a hundred thousand yuan or even more,
and that she must have been suffering from the pressure a lot. According to the
parents, her teachers and classmates, the 13-year-old appeared to be a happy and outgoing person who was easy to make friends. She certainly didn't seem to be
the type who would have ended her life.
100,000 yuan isn't much for a rich family in this nation, but is absolutely enough to drive the breadwinner of an average family mad or even to make them take
extreme actions. Now the pressure of the possibility of having to pay such an
astronomic amount of money has killed a teenager girl, who only wished to save her parents the amount, which the school she may choose to go to may require.
Now remember, folks, the school the girl was going to attend was some junior high school. The fees required for "school-choosing" may be as high as 100,000 yuan, which certainly is mind-boggling to people at grassroots level. What about
her senior high school and college? How much money would be enough and where does the damn money go?
Such news of young people's suicides would keep coming out if nothing is to change.
Have a heart! Schools!
Panpanpan.
