China’s “Hellish” Schools: Students Live Like Prisoners, Fighting For Food And Going Hungry

Chinese primary and secondary schools started the new semester on September 1st. Recently, a video circulating online showed students at a middle school running to the cafeteria to compete for food. At the same time, an audio recording also spread online, in which a middle school girl cried, saying she could not get food at school and was left hungry. She pleaded with the school to prepare more meals. The incident sparked widespread anger online. Will the school please make some changes? I have more than 400 yuan on my meal card. But ever since the new 7th grade students arrived, our meal schedule has changed. The 7th graders were given an extra 10 minutes to eat, which means students in grades 7, 8, and 9 now all eat at the same time. There were even two or three times when I couldn't get lunch at all. By the time it was my turn, all the food was gone, and I had nothing to eat. The school also doesn't allow students to bring food onto campus. We can only eat in the cafeteria. But when I finally reach the front of the line, the food's already gone. I don't have any food in my dorm either. Breakfast is the same. Every time I line up, there are already so many people waiting that I can't get anything to eat. Every day, I have to go to class on an empty stomach. The student said that because she often couldn't get anything to eat in the morning or at noon, she could only eat after school. She said she feels extremely hungry every day and hopes the school can prepare more meals or restore the previous meal schedule. In the comment section of the video, many parents complained that their own children had experienced the same problem, from middle school to high school. Many parents questioned whether the school's cafeteria management was flawed, saying the queuing system was chaotic, and the amount of food prepared was insufficient. Some criticized the school, saying they don't allow students to bring snacks, they don't allow outside food, and they don't allow parents to deliver meals. Some users commented, On September 8th, another video showed students from different grades in Shandong being required to walk to the cafeteria in highly organized formations. People in the comment section criticized the practice, writing, On September 9th, at a school in Wuhan, some students were reportedly punished after failing to complete their assigned milk orders. A homeroom teacher allegedly removed their seats and forced them to stand while drinking water. After the video was posted online, users commented, Another video showed students being prohibited from leaving campus for lunch. It claimed that the principal built a special isolation wall to quickly make money. Instead, parents, instead of objecting, allegedly fed their children through the wall like feeding animals. One user said, Another user wrote, One user posted a video after the start of the school year. Another surveillance video from a school circulated on Douyin. In the footage, even small movements by students were detected and identified. On September 1st, the official account of Xiangyang Police in Hubei Province released a video showing officers conducting surprise inspections on the first day of school. Police used detection devices to search through students' personal belongings. In the comment section, many users mocked the action. One person wrote, On September 12th, a foreign user in Shen Yun saw the school walls covered with barbed wire and surveillance cameras and questioned why a place that was clearly labeled a school looked almost no different from a prison. On December 15th, 2025, Chengdu Arts and Sports Middle School released a video claiming to showcase an AI system used for daily student monitoring. In the video, a military-style instructor detected someone shouting help inside a dormitory and then notified staff to conduct a safety inspection. Users commented, Another person asked, In China's education system, there is a well-known model called the Hengshui Model, named after Hengshui High School in Hubei Province. The school became known as a model for academic advancement because many students were admitted to top universities. Its approach was later copied by many middle schools across China. The model typically relies on strict schedules and closed campus management, with students spending their days repeatedly doing practice exercises. In recent years, however, Hengshui High School has repeatedly faced complaints from students and former teachers who have described it as being like a prison. Such criticism has often been suppressed. On March 9th, 2026, a graduate of Hengshui No. 2 High School revealed what he described as a hellish life. Students had 12 classes a day, waking up early in the morning and not being able to rest until close to midnight. In winter, they could only shower once. After lights out, they were not allowed to use the bathroom, and they only had one day off a month. Male teachers forced students who broke rules to open their mouths and spit into their mouths. Many students didn't even have time to brush their teeth or wash up. There were so many students with rotten teeth and stomach problems. Many also suffered from depression. Sixteen people were squeezed into an 8-9 square meter, 86-97 square feet dorm room. In prisons, beds are placed along both sides with a walkway in the middle. But in our dorms, two more beds were placed right in the middle. The interviewee said that during his three years of middle school, he was completely cut off from the outside world. The only entertainment students had at school was watching CCTV evening news. One user said, this is not education. It's already crossed into criminal territory. It's destroying the next generation. On April 27, 2026, a student filmed scenes from Hangzhou No. 2 High School in Hebei. Photos showed that the classroom windows and overhead areas were completely covered with wire fencing. Large slogans were hung over the exterior walls of every floor. The campus was filled with motivational slogans, creating an atmosphere described as extremely frightening and oppressive. In 2025, an overseas blogger launched a survey called the Shame List of Chinese Primary Schools. More than 1,800 schools across China were submitted by students and parents. According to these anonymous reports submitted online, many schools required students to study from around 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. More than 500 schools had winter vacations lasting no more than 10 days, while more than 260 schools had winter breaks of seven days or less. More than 670 schools allowed no more than two days off per month. The situation left many students suffering. Some students openly said their schools felt like prisons. Compared with China, students in the United States from elementary to high school typically attend classes five days a week and spend about six hours at school each day. The amount of homework students complete outside of school varies from person to person. Voice of America cited commentator Jiang Bu, who said, Chinese society needs to reflect on the purpose of education. Jiang said, Chinese education is similar to military training. It aims to turn every student into a qualified screw in a machine, erase individuality, and turn them into people who are passive and pose no threat to society. This was already the case before the Hengshui model was promoted. After the Hengshui model spread, Chinese middle schools directly changed from military-style training into prisons. From the many responses in the survey, we can also see that teachers lack even the most basic respect for students. The deeper question is, what kind of people should our education system be cultivating? The education system itself should reflect on this. Under the strict management approach adopted by many Chinese schools, conflicts between students and school authorities have become more likely. In January this year, a student protest broke out at the Dajiang Middle School in Guigang City, Guangxi Province. The school canceled weekend breaks and forced students to remain on campus to study, triggering widespread anger. Large amounts of students gathered at the school gate to protest. During the incident, some students broke through the security barriers and rushed out through a side gate. Video circulating online showed the entrance of Dajiang Middle School packed with students, leaving no room to move. Because the main entrance was blocked by an electric gate, students gathered at a side entrance where they clashed with school staff. The staff attempted to stop students from leaving, but due to the sheer number of students, they eventually failed to hold the line. Students broke through, opened the side gate themselves, and left campus. As whistles sounded repeatedly, students became increasingly excited. They ran through the narrow side entrance, with some students unable to hide their smiles. On February 2, 2026, a large-scale student protest erupted at Xianglong High School in Dezhou, Shandong Province. Xianglong High School is a private boarding school built with an investment of hundreds of millions of yuan and promoted as a high-end, full-boarding high school. However, critics said that behind its polished image, school management and some teachers had long subjected students to systematic physical punishment, humiliation, and attacks on their dignity. Students were reportedly forced to stand for hours, copy texts thousands of times, and were publicly insulted as trash. Some alleged that students were beaten, forced to kneel, restricted from using bathrooms, and had their phones confiscated to cut off contact with their parents. Some students said teachers continued patrolling dormitories with sticks even after lights out. They also complained that cafeteria food was poor in quality but expensive, and that students who expressed dissatisfaction were labeled as disobedient. Finally, on the morning of February 2nd, hundreds of students rushed out of their dormitories carrying makeshift items such as mop handles, chair legs, and fire extinguishers. They moved towards the administrative building and teacher dormitory area. Students smashed windows, overturned desks and chairs, tore down promotional banners, and shouted, The principal, several school administrators, and homeroom teachers reportedly fled in panic. Some even described the incident as a student uprising, a protest against China's authoritarian-style education system and ideological indoctrination. On July 10th, freshmen at Anlun No. 1 high school in Hubei launched a boycott to protest the fact that their summer vacation was drastically shortened from 20 days to about 5. In November 2025, students at Longli County No. 1 high school in Guizhou also staged a protest. Hundreds of high school students gathered in front of the dormitories and chanted slogans protesting the school's forced implementation of a prison-style schedule. After the incident became public, the school was forced to make some concessions. On the evening of September 11th, 2025, students at Yuzhou Middle School in Junhua, Hebei Province protested after the school changed holiday schedules to once a month and required students to voluntarily stay at school. The school eventually gave in, immediately arranging a holiday and promising to restore a two-week break schedule. There have been many similar incidents. But after graduating from prison, can students really find good jobs? College graduates becoming unemployed immediately after graduation has become a new reality. According to data from China's National Bureau of Statistics, in July 2026, the unemployment rate among urban workers aged 16 to 24 who are not enrolled in school rose to 17.9%, reaching a new high after changes to the statistical method. This is still a figure that outside observers believe has been manipulated and made to look better than reality. On September 9th, a university graduate from Hebei Province posted an emotional video online saying she couldn't find a job. I can't find a job. I've searched through so much information. She said she sent out about 200 resumes, but all of them disappeared without any response. She said that even choosing to do nothing left her anxious and without confidence and she was eventually considering working in a factory. There's a new wave of sentiment that education is useless. Going to school seems pointless. Even elementary school students now understand this. On September 1st, a 3rd grader in Tianjin broke down crying because of homework. The young boy said, What's the point of being alive? When we grow up, won't we just become labor for rich people? His mother said, If you work hard, you can find a good job. The boy then logically pointed out that his mother's statement was imagination, not reality. The video quickly went viral, receiving more than 145,000 likes. Some users said the boy was more clear-headed than a 40-year-old. In China, going to school is a process of carrying heavy burdens and being subjected to ideological conditioning. On September 27th, 2025, a user from Hebei edited footage showing Chinese elementary school students struggling while carrying heavy school bags. One user said, On August 12th, a first-year high school student in Beijing posted a video saying that during military training students were punished simply because they couldn't fold their blankets into squares. They were forced to do squats while holding their blankets and crawl across the playground while carrying them. Some students became too exhausted to continue and could only move forward on their knees. Users commented, This is all obedience training. They want to turn people into thoughtless slaves. If families cannot afford to send their children abroad but still choose to have children, they're making those children suffer. Many families are now facing serious economic difficulties. Combined with the fact that many people feel schools have become like prisons, many students no longer want to attend school. Some parents also don't want their children to receive the Chinese Communist Party's red ideological education. The source said she knew of multiple cases where children dropped out after completing only first grade. Parents understand that society is too chaotic now and schools don't teach useful knowledge so some are choosing to homeschool. On September 1st, the first day of school, only one new student enrolled at an elementary school in Guilin, Guangxi province. The principal said there were only nine students in total from first grade to third grade. One parent recently posted a video saying on the first day of school her child was the only one attending class in the first grade classroom. The video showed an old and worn classroom. Although there were several student desks, no one was sitting at them. The entire classroom contained only one boy lying alone on his desk. The child's parent told media that the boy in the video was her six-year-old son. When she brought him to school for his first day of enrollment, she discovered that he was the only student in the entire first grade. Finding it unusual, she recorded the video and posted it online. According to the school principal, at the start of the autumn semester, the school had only one first grade student, three second grade students, and five third grade students, for a total of nine pupils. All students attended as day students. The principal joked that the first grade student was now the only hope for the entire grade. Because his grades represented the entire grade's performance, teachers had to take turns teaching him individually. A video recently circulated overseas shows an elementary school in China announcing class leader appointments. The classroom reportedly had only four students. Apart from these four class leaders, there were no other classmates. Across many parts of China, schools are opening without new students. As a result, many schools have been forced to close or merge, causing the number of schools to decline sharply. In July 2026, statistics released by the CCP's Ministry of Education showed that in 2025, the number of elementary schools in China decreased by about 8,000 compared with the previous year, meaning nearly 22 schools closed every day on average. The number of kindergartens decreased by 21,400, with nearly 59 closing every day. China analyst Yang Bo said the decline in students and schools is mainly due to China's worsening population crisis, with birth rates and new student enrollment rates plunging. Student dropouts may also be a contributing factor. But regardless of the reason, he said this shows there are fewer and fewer children available to be brainwashed.