In South Korea, grim stories of teen suicide come at a regular clip. Recently, two 16-year-old girls in the city of Daejeon jumped to their deaths, leaving a note saying, "We hate school."
It's just one tragedy in a country where suicide is the leading cause of death among teens, and 11- to 15-year-olds report the highest amount of stress out of 30 developed nations.
A relentless focus on education and exams is often to blame. For a typical high school student, the official school day may end at 4 p.m., but can drag on for grueling hours at private cram institutes or in-school study hall, often not wrapping up until 11 p.m.
"Every high school, they do this," high school juniors Han Jae Kyung and Yoon Seoyoon tell NPR.
[For more of this story, written by Elise Hu, go to http://www.npr.org/blogs/paral...uth-korean-education]
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