42% of Girls "Suffer Greatly from School Pressure" - German Youth Survey Reflects Japan's Education Issues

"Just going to school makes me tired," "I can't sleep thinking about tests," "When my grades drop, I feel like I'm being rejected."

These words might not be exclusive to just a few young people.

According to the latest youth survey published in Germany, it was revealed that one in three young people aged 14 to 17 is strongly affected in their daily lives by stress from school.

What stands out, in particular, is the gender difference.

While 42% of girls reported being "strongly affected" by school stress, the figure was 25% for boys. Overall, it reached 33%, whereas those who felt little school stress were only 22%.

This means that the pressure felt at school is not a problem occurring only among a minority of "students who struggle with studies."

Moreover, when viewing these numbers from Japan, it cannot be dismissed as merely a "Germany-specific issue."

School stress as the biggest burden factor

This survey was conducted by the SINUS Institute, known for its social research, at the request of Germany's major public health insurance association BARMER.

In the fall of 2025, an online survey was conducted targeting about 2,000 young people aged 14 to 17 across Germany.

The factor most frequently cited as having a strong impact on young people's daily lives was school stress.

33% cited pressure from school as a significant burden.

The second was stress at home at 16%, and the third was loneliness at 12%.

Other factors included mental issues and stress from friendships at 11% each, dependency-related problems at 9%, bullying at 8%, and chronic physical illnesses at 7%.

Stress from romantic relationships was 6%, which is less impactful compared to school or family issues for those aged 14 to 17.

What is noteworthy is that while school is a place for young people to learn and form friendships, it can also become "the biggest source of stress."

BARMER CEO Christoph Straub points out that school stress is not a peripheral phenomenon and emphasizes the need to take the significant burden on young women seriously.

42% of girls, 25% of boys—why is there such a difference?

The most thought-provoking numbers are the 42% for girls and 25% for boys.

Of course, these numbers alone cannot lead to the conclusion that "girls are weaker in studies."

Rather, global surveys show that adolescent girls tend to feel school-related pressure more strongly than boys, not just in Germany.

An international survey analyzed by the WHO European Regional Office, targeting about 280,000 people aged 11, 13, and 15 from 44 countries and regions, found that about 63% of 15-year-old girls felt pressure from school studies, compared to 43% of boys.

In 2018, it was 54% for girls and 40% for boys, with the proportion feeling school pressure particularly rising among girls.

Since the question methods and definitions of "stress" differ from the current German survey, the numbers cannot be simply compared.

However, the direction that "late adolescent girls tend to feel more pressure from school" is common.

Regarding the background, WHO suggests considering multiple factors, such as expectations for academic success, role expectations from family and society, relationships with others, and ease of receiving support.

What is required of modern female students is not just scoring high on tests.

Maintaining good relationships, grooming, not standing out on social media, and deciding on further education and future plans early on—.

With the expansion of "places to be evaluated" outside of school life, the psychological burden may become harder to break.

On social media, voices say "it's not just because of tests"

The BARMER survey was reported only on August 25, and at this point, there has not been a sufficient accumulation of large-scale reactions on social media to the survey itself.

 

However, discussions about "Schulstress = school stress" have been actively conducted on German-speaking social media and forums for some time.

What emerges from these discussions is that the stress young people feel cannot be explained by the simple phrase "because exams are difficult."

When the WHO's school stress survey became a topic on Reddit,

many people resonated with the experience of being told by parents, "You're young, so you shouldn't have stress."

This might be a familiar story in Japan as well.

From an adult's perspective, middle and high school students without jobs, mortgages, or child-rearing responsibilities may seem "carefree."

However, for the students themselves, school occupies a large part of their world.

Falling grades, isolation from friends, not being recognized by teachers, not reaching the desired school are extremely significant issues for them at that time.

Being told, "It gets harder when you become an adult," doesn't lighten the current pain.

The issue of "too many subjects at once"

On social media, there are also questions about the school system itself.

A German post pointed out that the situation of studying multiple subjects simultaneously and being required to take tests, assignments, homework, and presentations for each is stressful.

Studying math and then moving to history, with English the next day, followed by a science test.

If multiple exams overlap in the same week, students have to cram a large amount of knowledge in a short period.

Rather than understanding and retaining the learned content as long-term knowledge, it tends to become "remember until the exam day and forget afterward" learning.

This is not irrelevant to Japanese middle and high school students.

Before regular exams, tests for five subjects, and sometimes many subjects including practical ones, are concentrated over several days.

Additionally, in some schools, quizzes, submissions, club activities, cram schools, mock exams, English qualifications, and activities for recommendation-based entrance exams overlap.

Even if each task is reasonable when viewed individually, the moment they are summed up, they exceed the capacity.

When considering school stress, it is necessary to have a perspective not only on "whether one task is too difficult" but also on "how many demands are placed on students at the same time."

The feeling that "grades determine one's value"

In a post made in 2026 in a German school-related community, a teenager expressed strong dissatisfaction with the feeling that school grades and evaluations determine not only their future but also their self-worth.

Of course, individual posts on social media do not represent statistics for the entire society.

However, such words can serve as material for understanding the core of school stress.

Originally, grades are meant to measure learning achievement at a specific point in time, for a specific subject, based on certain evaluation criteria.

However, within the individual,

"I got a low score in math"

turns into

"I'm not smart,"

and further expands to

"I have no future."

The "answer sheet," which was supposed to be the object of evaluation, is somehow replaced by "personality."

In Japan, where deviation scores, school names, and advancement achievements are strongly emphasized, the same problem can occur.

Blaming only the school won't solve the problem

On the other hand, there is another perspective on social media.

The question is, "Is it only the school's fault?"

With smartphones, friends are connected 24/7, and on Instagram and TikTok, the successes and seemingly enjoyable lives of peers are constantly visible.

Even after returning home from school, relationships do not end there.

Group chats continue to move, and on social media, who is hanging out with whom is visible.

Even while studying for tests, friends' posts, videos, news, and advertisements flow in.

In another WHO survey, the proportion of young people who find it difficult to control their social media use and see negative impacts on their lives rose from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022.

It was 13% for girls and 9% for boys.

However, it is also dangerous to oversimplify by saying, "Smartphones are the cause of school stress."

In reality, it is more natural to think that stress from school, home, friendships, social media, and future anxieties accumulate into one big burden.

The fact that not only school stress but also home stress and loneliness ranked high in the German survey also indicates this complexity.

The increase in "children distancing themselves from school" cannot be overlooked in Japan

So, what about Japan?

There is no national survey directly comparable to Germany's "33% school stress," so a simple international comparison cannot be made.

However, there are numbers in the Japanese educational field that cannot be ignored.

According to a survey compiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for the 6th year of Reiwa, the number of non-attending students in elementary and junior high schools reached about 354,000, a record high.

The number of non-attending high school students also reached about 68,000.

Of course, the reasons for non-attendance vary for each individual.

School stress is not the only cause, and non-attendance should not be simply labeled as a "bad state."

Nevertheless, the fact that so many children are distancing themselves from traditional school life indicates the danger of considering "being able to attend school" as proof of a healthy state.

Just because they are sitting in the classroom doesn't mean there are no problems.

Some children endure going to school until their limits.

When considering school stress, what truly needs attention may not only be the "children who took a break" but also the "children who are enduring without being able to take a break."

Student suicides in Japan are also at a serious level

There is an even heavier issue.

According to reports from schools by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 413 students committed suicide in the 6th year of Reiwa.

However, the statistics from the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, which use different aggregation methods, show larger numbers for student suicides corresponding to the same year.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology itself considers the situation of student suicides remaining high as "extremely concerning."

Backgrounds identified by schools include issues related to career paths, friendship problems, and academic struggles.

Naturally, the outcome of suicide cannot be explained solely by school stress.

Family, health, economic conditions, relationships, and many other factors are intricately related.

Nevertheless, it is dangerous to belittle children's complaints by saying, "It's just grades," or "Everyone goes to school."

What is an unbearable burden for the individual cannot be understood just by looking from the outside.

Yet, young people have not completely given up on the future

The important thing here is not to generalize that "young people today have lost hope."

In the same BARMER-SINUS 2025/2026 survey, while the number of young people optimistic about the future of Germany and the world is decreasing, about 80% are optimistic about their own future.

There is anxiety about the future of society as a whole.

However, they still have hope for their own lives.

These two can coexist.

When discussing young people's mental health issues, explaining it as "recent young people have become weaker" or "pessimistic about the future" misses the essence of the problem.

Rather, many young people are trying to move forward in their own way.

The issue is what kind of environment schools, homes, and society provide for their efforts.

What Japan needs to consider is a shift from "education that makes students endure stress"

Schools need a certain amount of load.

Exams, deadlines, public presentations, competition, and experiences of failure.

It's not about removing all of these.

There is also an aspect of growth by overcoming moderate loads.

The problem arises when the boundary between "load that can be overcome" and "load that continues to wear down the mind and body" becomes invisible.

In Japan, the idea that "it will be harder when you enter society, so you should endure it while you're a student" is also deeply rooted.

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