An otherwise soft-spoken mother and poet becomes an agitated campaigner when she talks about Chinese children buried under heavy loads of schoolwork -- with some sleeping only five hours each night.

On Nov. 19, Hu Lanlan sent a tear-stained letter to the Ministry of Education (MOE), appealing for a series of education reforms that she believes will be crucial for saving China's more than 200 million children.

She had received no response as of Monday. A press official with the ministry said they were "attentive to this letter" and were "checking the situation," but refused to comment further.

Hu, whose teenage twins attend junior high school in Beijing, was prompted to write the lengthy letter after a series of minors committed suicide over poor grades or heavy loads of schoolwork, she said in a telephone interview with Xinhua on Monday.

She said she witnessed the first suicide exactly 10 years ago, when her friend's 14-year-old son hanged himself in the washroom of his family's apartment because he had not finished his mountains of schoolwork and feared punishment.

"Similar tragedies, however, are still happening today. Each year, dozens of children commit suicide under the pressure of too much homework and their parents' expectations for them to enter top schools," she said in the letter, which was sent to the minister's email account published on the MOE's official website.

The youngest of these children, she said, was just 9 years old.

In one of the latest tragedies, a 12-year-old boy in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, threw himself out of a 16th-floor window on Tuesday, leaving behind an English exercise book, in which he wrote, "I'm going to die. Bye."

The boy, nicknamed Xiao Liang, had poor grades and sometimes failed to finish his homework. On Nov. 20, the day before he died, his teacher had torn his Chinese textbook to pieces because he had not done his assignment properly.

The recent deaths of five children in Bijie, an impoverished city in southwest China's Guizhou Province, triggered public outcry over the well-being of children. The five boys, aged 9 through 13, were cousins from the same extended family who often skipped school because of their failing grades. They were found dead in a dumpster that they huddled in to escape the bitter cold.

STRESS

"An an ordinary citizen, I make my appeal for those millions of Chinese children devastated by the exam-based education, out of my love for the kids and the determination to do something for their physical and mental health."

In her letter, which she posted on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging website, Hu lashed out at the severe situation created by the exam-based education system, which includes, she said, a seriously unbalanced allocation of resources as well as under-the-counter deals struck between school authorities and real estate developers, training companies and other businesses with an eye on the high profits promised by the education market.

Foremost, however, is the damage done to the children, some of whom are seeing their health deteriorate, committing suicide and running away from home to escape the pressure, said Hu.

Growing academic pressure has threatened children's psychological health, according to Dr. Ye Yiduo, a noted child psychologist based in the eastern province of Fujian.

In one of his research projects, Dr. Ye surveyed 6,091 children of different age groups ranging from preschoolers through senior high students. The results were worrying: at least 20 percent of the primary school students surveyed had psychological problems, and the ratios stood at about 44 percent of junior high students and 52 percent of senior high students.

"These are not just abstract figures," said Hu, who quoted Dr. Ye's figures in her letter. "Behind these figures, so many children and families are suffering. Pre-teens get up drowsily at daybreak to go to school and stay up late to finish their assignments. Many attend training courses on weekends and holidays in order to excel."

Such courses range from English, Olympic mathematics and Chinese to sports and arts -- anything that might give a child an edge when he or she applies to top high schools.

When Hu herself was young, back in the 1980s, she had more fun than homework. "Today, however, children are like machines running around the clock. In an ailing education system, teachers exert too much pressure on children because they themselves feel the stress from school authorities."

She forwarded a copy of her letter to the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top lawmaking body, hoping that the legislature will grant education specialists a greater say in mapping out the country's education system.

"We should understand the children, who are not as mentally strong as we might think, and create a healthier environment to boost their confidence and enable them to truly love school life," said Hu.

Lessening the heavy burden on children is crucial for the healthy development of the new generation, and it will eventually help China transform from a global workshop to a more competitive nation, said Ye Kai, the editor of a leading Shanghai-based literary magazine.

"Schools and parents should respect children's growth patterns and grant them more time for fun," said Ye, who has edited many famous novels, including the work of Mo Yan, this year's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. "The younger generation needs to be innovative and imaginative, but the prevailing education system is not doing enough to that effect."

COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION

Beijing-based writer Wang Jiuxin has been posting microblog entries for at least a year to call attention to the commercial exploitation of public education resources.

Wang ranked education as one of the most lucrative industries in China, given that 11 training companies, some of which target primary and middle school students, are listed in the United States with a combined market value of 7.5 billion U.S. dollars.

"These companies are making illegal profits, because they are offering courses to keep children busy on weekends and holidays, with threats that the kids will 'fall behind at the starting point' if they do not work hard enough," he said.

As a result, many children attend extra courses in their spare time instead of taking up sports. "Teachers and parents often feed children with book knowledge of little practical use, depriving them of time for fun," Wang said.

Wang suggested extending the compulsory education period from nine to 12 years or, preferably, 15 years. "We should ensure free public education for all children from preschool through senior high."

MUCH-NEEDED REFORMS

In her letter, Hu suggested that China should make laws ensuring that school children can get at least eight hours of sleep each night and exempting primary school students from homework.

A 2009 survey carried out by China Youth & Children's Research Center found that China's primary school students spend about 75 minutes on their homework and 25 minutes on sports each day.

The survey also revealed that junior high students spend an average of two hours a day on homework and 37 minutes on sports.

Meanwhile, it said Chinese school children get an average of 7.5 hours of sleep each night, despite a 2009 regulation from the Ministry of Education encouraging schools to limit homework so primary school students, junior high students and senior high students can get an average of ten, nine and eight hours of sleep each night, respectively.

In reality, most primary school students stay up until 11 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m.

Many high school students finish classes at 9:30 p.m., with loads of homework to be done until after midnight.

To protect the children, Hu demanded an end to the exam-based evaluation system by canceling tests and rankings during the primary school and junior high years.

"Schools should no longer be labeled as 'key schools' or 'substandard schools,'" she said. "And private schools should be allowed to compete with public ones on equal footing to give parents and students more choices."

In big cities like Beijing, parents often pay 30,000 to 100,000 yuan (4,818 to 16,060 U.S. dollars) in "sponsorship fees" for their children to attend top primary or junior high schools. No one knows how the money is spent and no one -- neither school management nor education authorities -- admits to taking the money.

Hu said her letter was not only addressed to education authorities. "I also hope to get parents thinking about our own problems: what are our expectations for our children? Society is intoxicated by the preachings of the haves -- successful tycoons, politicians or VIPs from different walks of life. Can we simply accept the fact that our children may grow up to be honest yet mediocre citizens?"

If the answer is "no," then it will be difficult to protect children from grade-worshipping, after all, she said.