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Some Chinese students returning to high school after lockdown are grappling with familial conflict while others are stressing over how coronavirus disruptions have affected their academic performance, teachers and faculty counsellors say.

The heightened post-lockdown anxiety has become a matter of central government concern as domestic media report a spate of suicides by children . it's also led to unprecedented measures by schools and native governments to specialise in student psychological state - a subject that like suicide has often been taboo in Chinese society.

There are some heartbreaking incidents as schools reopened," Yan Wu, vice mayor of the southern

city of Zhuhai, said at China's annual parliamentary meeting last month.

This highlights the importance and urgency of promoting psychological state development in young students, he said.

At the parliamentary meeting, a minimum of four delegates suggests proposals for more attention to be paid to students psychological needs.

In one Shanghai district, there are 14 suicides by primary and lyceum students thus far this year - quite Annual numbers for the last three years, Li Guohua, deputy mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area district, told financial magazine Caixin in May.

the tip of an iceberg," he was quoted as saying.

Reuters was unable to contact Li or confirm the amount with local authorities.

The state-owned Health Times also reported on Sunday that nationwide, 18 students had jumped off buildings within the past three months and quoted experts calling for more specialise in student psychological state . The article was, however, soon deleted - a standard occurrence in China when sensitive topics are raised.

Life Education

As China eased measures to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus, students began shifting from online classes back to classrooms in March.

One online survey of 1.22 million primary and secondary students conducted that month by the southern province of Guangdongs health commission and a university concluded that 10.5% were potentially grappling with psychological state issues. Detailed findings weren't published.

In late April, China's education ministry began telling schools to concentrate to psychological state and adjust lesson plans in order that students feel less academic pressure. Nearly a dozen local governments have since published measures, with the eastern province of Anhui scrapping some exams.

The city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus in China, Hainan province and Shanghai are among local governments providing new "life education classes aimed toward helping students affect stress and grief.

In one such class, students were divided into two groups who raced to make English words, but one group was given a way harder set of letters - a prompt for a discussion about stressful situations.

The purpose was to form students aware that feeling stressed is natural, which how you affect that stress can cause different outcomes, said the teacher.

I am hoping the virus will teach kids the way to affect changes in life. Life is filled with difficulties, she said.