Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: AsiaWire

This is the moment that students at an infamous cramming school stand in line waiting for the lunch and poring over study notes to prepare for upcoming exams.

Thousands of people flocked online to comment on how they felt sorry for the young people forced to constantly study at the notorious Hengshui High School which is located in China’s Hebei province.

The footage was reportedly shot in the school canteen, with the students reading from the notes as they wait for food so they don’t waste even a second of study time.

The routing that the school has been compared with military-style discipline which includes a ban on close friendships with any member of the opposite sex. It also involves the kids starting work at 5:30 a.m. every day where they begin studying, and they have an incredible 12 hours of class a day, with only 15-minute breaks for meals.

Many classes where kids have to read in order to study carried out in classrooms without seats to avoid the kids falling asleep at their desks.

The school specialises in preparing children for the gaokao which is the pre-entry test in order to obtain access to the country’s best universities.

It also includes high-profile military-style parades and assemblies in the school grounds involving shouting by the pupils to confirm their determination to be successful.

It has come under fire for putting too much pressure on its pupils, and in 2016 one child died while jumping from the top of the school. But instead of easing up the pressure, they simply installed iron bars making it very difficult for anybody to commit suicide by jumping from school property.

For many that made it even worse, with ex-people sometimes comparing it to a prison.

Despite that, however, Hengshui is so popular that it has now opened up other branches across China and one occasion even put a tank outside to underline the military discipline it demands.

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