Introduction: 

The recent suicides by the students of private college/school students indicate the intensity of the torchers, humiliation, and mental agony by the institutions towards innocent students, highly condemned and should take stringent action against such management. We cannot bring back their life. We are collectively making mistakes by choosing the wrong institutions.

Innocent students will be admitted in so-called reputed institutions aiming to get good academic performance but the intelligent students, instead of encouraging them to do the best performance, and the school/college management fail to gain the confidence of students and they are taking innocent lives. It is not only one case of the sattvic many students are facing similar stress and strain before the annual examinations.

The majority of the parents in the Indian context especially, repeatedly indulge in a common folly, knowingly or unknowingly. As the ward steps into the 6th grade, parents change the school, just because their child can excel like other kids in academics and other spheres. Unaware of the dire consequences, the comparative and competitive spirit is imposed on their wards. They have only two options: long-term coaching right from the 6th class, either for medicine or Engineering in the elite IITs.

The parents enroll their wards in corporate schools assuming that they will also secure top ranks. Surreal advertisements mesmerize such parents and admit their wards to corporate schools.

We need to understand that unless the child performs exceptionally well, let’s say in Mathematics then parents can take a decision in coaching for IIT or other exams, else never push our kids to undertake such courses. Many parents compare with other colleagues and feel that their ward should also be admitted in similar coaching/courses, even if their performance is average.

Spike in Students Suicide: 

NCRB Report As per the report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) more students ended their lives in 2020 than in 2019. Student suicide spiked to a new high of 12,526 in 2020 resulting in 8.2 percent deaths, whereas the farmer’s suicide rate stayed constant at 7.4 percent.

The biggest spike in student death was recorded (2021) in the states of Maharashtra (1648), Tamil Nādu (930), Madhya Pradesh (1,158), Odisha (1,469), Telangana (567), and Andhra Pradesh (489).

The sharp rise in the number of suicides being high expectations from parents, faculty, and peer pressure, also on account of the cancellation of Board exams due to the Covid-19 pandemic had led to undue stress on the young mind

Cause and Effect: 

The strong inclination towards suicidal tendencies or the number of cases is higher in the southern states as compared to northern states. It can be attributed to excess pressure from the parents and unable to justify their wishes, students tend to indulge in such cowardly acts. We lose many innocent bright and brilliant students as we never understand their psyche. We give the least priority to their basic needs but constantly push them beyond their mental and emotional capabilities resulting in an acute state of depression. Parents forcefully dump their life aspirations and admit their children to reputed residential schools, seldom thinking about stress levels and depressive activities. I feel utterly disappointed whenever I come across such tragic news, sadly our system is still not ready enough to handle such basic challenges pertaining to the youth of our nation.

Opinion: 

As per the Opinion of Dr. Anita, Clinical Psychologists the suicidal tendency is seen mainly by overthinking of the students on their failure. They are being very sensitive and unable to digest the news and they feel that they will not have any future so they decide to take suicide. Parents play an important role they need to be friendly with the student and they should tell them that exam success is not the ultimate to their life. We need to impose confidence in them by citing many failures people example and how finally they could succeed in their life.

Ms. Usha Sri, Director of Roshini, an NGO that helps and counsels students in a state of depression and suicidal thoughts, has revealed some shocking truths. During the pandemic, the phone calls received on this NGO’s helpline number rose to 64 percent and the age group of the callers was between 20-45 years. 26 percent of phone calls were from below 20 years of age group.

Suicide Tendencies: 

One has to identify the suicidal tendencies of the children. They will undergo several steps and will be in depression. First, they decide to end up their life in the second step on how to do the extreme step and they will be thinking always about this and they would like to be away from their family and friends. We should not leave them alone and try to motivate them and should bring them back to normal. If parents, teachers, and friends can do this collectively we can see good results in them 

New Courses: We need to understand that many new courses/streams are coming up, based on the child’s interest and passion. The students should have fair knowledge regarding his/her academics and future professional interests. The combinations of subjects and the group they intend to opt for must be classified so that the kid is not forced into studying subjects, he dislikes. We need to honour their views and respect their inclinations, as a parent, and should not hinder their academic growth. If your child is passionate about music or painting and intends to pursue a career in the same, and we as parents push him/her to clear NEET or Common Engineering Tests, will he ever succeed and live to celebrate his life?

Multi-dimensional Approach: 

As Locke says: “Every individual at birth is Tabula Rasa i.e a clean slate on which nothing but experiences write”. In this “Nature-Nurture” equation, both elements play an important role in the development of any child. Every student is a complex amalgamation of potential talents. Given the proper vent, his/her latent skills erupt. So a multidimensional approach is being adopted to develop their overall personality. The various components– intellectual, cultural, physical, and aesthetic combine to form a well-knit “grid”. A soft touch at the right spot and he/she triggers off to give his best. We cannot paint a picture of any child today. Let’s prepare them to face any eventuality, we can cross–ventilate their brains by encouraging them to keep their eyes open and their mind always receptive. It’s the duty of both parents and teachers as culture and socialization begin at home and in school

Aksharavanam: 

Mr Reddy Chairman of Aksharvanam rightly says that our present education system is Teacher-centric or Parent-centric and not in favour of the student. As most of the corporate schools and colleges are concrete examples of teacher-centric education and their teaching reaches only 10 percent of the students and the rest of them are left to find their way ahead. In fact, they risk the future of the children indirectly by unjustified teaching methodology. They flash the top 10 percent results on billboards to woo fresh students into their schools.

 One teacher cannot justify a topic to the entire class of 30-40 students as every student is on a different and unique level of grasping the subject or ideas. We cannot teach them equally or justify 40 students and it is a highly impossible task. So, the senior students undertake the role of a teacher for the juniors and interact one on one, thus learning better than the regular school-going children. They even develop logical skills, while learning and evolving new techniques of solving numerical and new methods of doing experiments. It will enhance their learning skills way better than others in all aspects. They call such teaching methodology as student-centric.

Parent’s Responsibility: 

Parents have to check if the institutions are giving stress-free education, then only, we should take admitted to such colleges/schools. It is interesting to note such suicide attempts we have never seen in government colleges/schools. There are no proper mechanisms to check these institutions and we need to discourage such institutions by not admitting our children. Parents have to take a collective stand in this regard. Parents should also realize that we need not admit our children to hostels as we have a good number of colleges available in the city. Private colleges/schools’ hostels have to be banned with immediate effect as there is no provision of rules in government for these hostels.

Finally: 

The parents and the management should realize that passing the examinations is not the ultimate in their life. We know pretty well that most companies are looking at the skills of the students, not their academic progress reports.

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