Like similar incidents in Hong Kong, this suicide has highlighted Singapore's pressure-cooker schools and society's demands on children to strive for success from a tender age.

"Many pupils find the education system to be stressful," said Anthony Chang, a psychologist with the National University of Singapore. "Where schoolwork is concerned, there should be no casualties. No one should die because of school."

The island's lack of natural resources has led it to put a heavy emphasis on human capital and has resulted in a fiercely competitive education system. Parents hoping to give their children a headstart typically have to pick ballots for the limited number of places at popular schools when their seven-year-olds start formal education. Whatever the result of the ballot, many students head to private tuition after class, and a stack of homework is the norm.

School also offers children the first brush with the fight for economic survival in a country vulnerable to the winds of regional stability.

Statistics on youth suicide in Singapore are hard to come by. But the efforts of counselling groups and education officials suggest Lysher's death on June 25 was not an isolated incident. Another case involved a 12-year-old girl who jumped to her death in December after her father found out she had doctored her poor grades.

After the coroner delivered his report on Lysher's suicide last week, local newspapers devoted pages to the largely taboo subject, alerting parents to signs of stress and reassuring children that failure was part of the learning process.

Coroner John Ng said in his report there were signs Lysher was unhappy with pressures faced by a student wanting to excel. "Her conduct was excellent, and the school report reflected that she was very serious where her schoolwork was concerned," Mr Ng wrote. "She had been advised by her teachers to be less meticulous, so as not to give herself added stress."

Lysher's school principal told local media her parents were supportive of their second child and only daughter. Her father had faithfully turned up at all of her school functions.

But the maid said Lysher would become sad when asked about schoolwork and recalled the girl saying she did not want to be reincarnated as a human because she would have to do homework, go to school and fight with siblings.

Samaritans of Singapore (SOS), which operates the city-state's main suicide hotline, held a prevention week in June to draw attention to the issue of troubled children. "Their main concerns mostly are relationships with boys or girls, their peers, parents, and also a lot of anxiety about exams and schoolwork," an SOS spokeswoman said.

Schools get suicide-intervention guides from the Ministry of Education, and each school has at least two trained teacher-counsellors. "We will continue to be vigilant and closely monitor the changing emotional needs of our pupils," a ministry spokesman said.

But even as schools and hotline operators offer counselling, children are still hunched over their books. "Every day, I have so much homework," said nine-year-old Jonathan Lee. "There is no time to play."