Pupils have been finding ingenious ways to avoid homework ever since teachers first started setting it.

But children in Wuhan, China, have hit upon a particularly inventive way to sidestep their studies. They have been submitting tens of thousands of negative reviews of an online homework app in an attempt to shut it down. 

Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, is under emergency quarantine measures and all schools are closed. 

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According to a report from the London Review of Books, children in the city enjoyed the time off school, until their teachers began setting them homework through an app called DingTalk. 

Pupils were meant to sign into the app to join their class for online lessons, while their teachers also used it to set homework. 

The pupils worked out that if enough users gave the learning app one-star reviews, it would be discontinued from Apple’s App Store. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren submitted one-star reviews, resulting in DingTalk’s rating plummeting overnight from 4.9 to 1.4.

The app was forced to defend itself on social media, pleading, “I’m only five years old myself, please don’t kill me.”

Many schools in China are using online learning platforms to continue teaching while schools remain closed. 

Tes has reported how some British teachers who work in international schools in China - and have returned to the UK to escape coronavirus - have been expected to work overnight to match Chinese school hours and provide online lessons.

And teachers have been going to extreme lengths to continue teaching online in China, with some members of staff teaching from the toilet in their homes to ensure pupils continue studying through virtual platforms.