Daily Times

Three students committed suicide last week, raising alarm at an emerging trend that remains unaddressed. Most of the reported suicide cases involve school- and college-going students belonging to low-income families. It is time society took stock of what is causing children to take this extreme step. While there could be several reasons for this unfortunate tendency, some are: the standard of education offered to children from the lower-income bracket, the quality of the curriculum and text books, the abusive attitude of some teachers, the unrealistic expectations of parents, the pressure to get a good education as the key to employment and better living standards, and an absence of student counselling. It is a vicious cycle. The poorly educated, abused students of yesterday are today’s teachers in state-run cash-strapped schools and colleges. Lack of good education and teaching training programmes produce individuals who are disinterested, unmotivated and unsuitable to be in classrooms stuffed to capacity with children from backgrounds similar to their own. Burdened by social and economic pressures, these teachers conduct their duties with an unwillingness to go beyond the rote-and-reproduce archaic system and a cane in their hands. Children are taught to not think, only to sport a show of being educated, while learning nothing significant. Verbal and physical abuse become part of a normal school day; as a result, a psyche of fear becomes ingrained in the young personality. In institutions where even the required number of teachers is absent, to hope for student guidance may be asking for the moon, but it is of the utmost importance when young people start to kill themselves over very insignificant issues. It is time the education ministries devise and incorporate policies that would not only improve the standard of education but also help students discuss their academic/psychological issues with someone within the institution assigned this task.

Parents play an even bigger role. To pressurise children to do well beyond a point can prove harmful for a child’s emotional and mental growth. Other pressures in the home stem from the fight for economic survival. A bad report card, the ridicule of peers, censure of parents and humiliation at school all inculcate a deep sense of fear of failure, which in some cases, ends in the ultimate escape: death. Parents, educationists and psychologists need to come together to learn how to minimize, if not eliminate, such pressures debilitating young people’s educational and mental capabilities. There should be forums where all three engage in a healthy discourse with children, helping them develop a balance between expectations and reality. Until there is an interactive dialogue between the concerned parties, children feeling isolated will keep dying prematurely and unnecessarily. *