Some 30 million Chinese teenagers under 17 years old suffer some degree of psychological problems, said the Ministry of Public Health Friday.  

Psychological and mental problems among juveniles have become prominent as the country is changing fast into a modern society and mental illness becomes the top disease, the Ministry said.

China now has 16 million people suffering mental illness, accounting for 20 percent of the total number of patients.

Many neglected to seek treatment in the early stage of their illness in part because the Chinese public, adults as well as youth, don't have a good awareness of mental illness and psychological problems, the administration said.

The Communist Youth League of China, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education and China Youth Daily jointly kicked off a program Friday to improve the psychological education and counseling in schools.

Teachers in primary and high schools in remote rural areas will receive training in psychology while a website is to open and a manual to be published for college students to deal with their psychological problems, according to the three to five-year program.

On Feb. 23 this year, a student of Yunnan University in southwest China named Ma Jiajue is suspected of having killed four classmates in his dormitory. Press here connected the slayings much to the psychological problems of the young man.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2004)