A prominent Chinese businessman has questioned the efficacy of the country’s recent academic reforms after his 12-year-old son committed suicide.

Grieving father Song Qinghui says his son Song Haoran had an ever-heavier workload, endless tests and inadequate psychological support at his school.

He wrote in an online post: “In the two months since my son was in junior high school, he had to do his homework very late every day, and there were even many cases where he couldn’t finish doing his homework that night and made up his homework before school the next day.”

Three days after scoring poorly in his midterm exams, Song jumped off the 16th floor of his apartment building on his way to school.

His father says that his son was a talented artist and that this was his greatest passion and refuge from the stress of life, but that most of the time he had to concentrate on other subjects so as not to fall behind in school.

China has recently imposed reforms to try and assuage the pressure felt by students in their notoriously gruelling curriculum, such as prohibiting tutors from charging money for private lessons and encouraging teachers to give out less homework.

However, Song says the country’s fixation with academic excellence remains very much present and the pressure simply reaches them in other ways.

The father added that he hopes his son’s short life will serve to generate a social impact in helping other children to be free to follow their interests and not spend all their time immersed in textbooks.