How quarantined Chinese students in Wuhan hacked their way out of homework

Even in difficult times, students find their way out of homework and that is exactly what happened in Wuhan where quarantined youngsters hacked their way out of online schooling.

A report in the London Review of Books detailed what life has been like in Wuhan, epicentre of coronavirus. Among the distressing details, there was one light-hearted piece of information.

Schools were shut down in the city as the spread of the deadly virus worsened. Quarantined students were relieved to be off school until an app called DingTalk enabled them to get lessons and homework online.

The app helps students join their class for online lessons and teachers to assign homework.

“Children were presumably glad to be off school – until, that is, an app called DingTalk was introduced,” the report by London Review of Books read.

However, that didn't stop the children from finding a way out of studying.

Reportedly, the youngsters found out that if enough users gave the app a one-star review, it would get taken off the App Store.

Reportedly, thousands of reviews flooded in, and DingTalk’s rating plummeted overnight from 4.9 to 1.4.

According to the London Review of Books, “the app has had to beg for mercy on social media: 'I'm only five years old myself, please don’t kill me'".

When the news of what the students had done surfaced online, social media users could not help but appreciate their efforts.

Tweep @StephenMcDonell thought it was a "brilliant" plan: “All power to kids of #Wuhan! Ha ha! Brilliant!”

Another user @BTS_ARMYFANACC_ tweeted: “I think they all deserve straight A’s for this forward thinking.”

User @Birdyword shared how he avoided homework when he went to school: "I managed to avoid maths homework for two years by circumventing my teacher's weirdly rigid system of collecting our notebooks and realising he didn't check the names at home. I'm more proud of this than any actual work I did at school. No apologies, Mr. Howell."