Daily Times

War trauma and academic failures have a strong connection as most children who have experienced traumatic events face difficulties in learning.

Quetta has lived through a violent conflict over the past decade that has seen thousands killed. The psychological trauma of war has had a strong impact on children’s minds and severely affected their academic progress in schools, as twenty percent of schoolchildren suffer from psychological issues in Quetta.

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, a leading national public health institute of the United States, “between 30 and 70 percent of people who have lived in war zones bear the scars of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

Dr Muhammad Abbas Khan, a consultant psychiatrist at Balochistan Institute of Psychiatry And Behavioural Sciences in Quetta estimated that 15 to 20 percent school children suffer from psychological issues due to violent and catastrophic events. This ratio is higher in children of victimised communities than other children, he said.

Children’s emotional issues change the way the brain works and extreme trauma shuts down areas of the brain where learning occurs, say mental health experts.

“The blasts and violence severely affect children’s ability to learn because under chronic stress they cannot learn, at this stage, the children need treatment which is important for learning,” Khan said. “Trauma disturbs the concentration of children.”

Majority of schoolchildren who have survived bombings, seen loved ones killed in front of them and experienced such incidents, have troubles in the classroom because it impacts the brain, memory and thinking process.

Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta Neurosurgery Department head Dr Raz Muhammad said terror attacks have a severe effect on the ability of children to think clearly.

“Few people recover from treatment and majority of people cannot come back to normal; emotional and psychological deficiencies always stay with them,” Muhammad said. Those who manage to escape near-death experiences, may face psychological difficulties their whole lives, he added.

The current learning atmosphere in Quetta’s schools is not effective for the children as a huge number of affected children need trauma-sensitive classrooms for learning.

A trauma-informed learning environment can diminish the students’ trauma as it can create learning environment for affected students and also address their behavioural disorders.

“Trauma-sensitive classrooms are paramount for children’s resilience because child trauma is a serious educational problem and these children need trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT), a psychological treatment model designed to treat post-traumatic stress and behavioural problems in children,” said Khan.

A number of traumatised students in the city don’t have any psychological support at their schools.

Children need services of mental health experts in schools, but government and private schools have completely ignored this issue to facilitate affected students. Not only the provincial education department has not taken any steps for the affected children, private schools have also failed to provide psychological support to pupils and treat their psychological and behavioural issues.

“The government should hire professionals such as psychiatrists and psychologists for schools so that they can understand the psychological issues that children suffer from and help them deal successfully with difficult situations, Amir Bano, an educational psychologist and chairperson of the Balochistan University Department of Higher Education said.

Since schools educate students in an uncreative atmosphere, it undermines the abilities of thinking and decreases power of creativity.

All students have the ability to think creatively and schools are trying to make students more creative but this inhumane environment in which students live is the vital obstacle.

Bano said creativity was difficult for students in a situation where they are not able to concentrate and lack of concentration decreases the power of creativity.

The issue is worsening in schools because a huge number of students come to school with psychological and emotional issues that create barriers to learning.

Schools don’t give mental health support to traumatised students which has almost destroyed the victims’ education, she said.

“We need to create an environment in schools in which children can build resilience and change curriculum that includes activities to provide mental support to children. Without educational reforms it is not feasible for mentally affected children to understand lectures and curriculum in classrooms,” she explained.

Due to a lack of training, most teachers in Quetta’s schools don’t have any idea about traumatised children who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They are not able to understand the learning barriers.

Students are not receiving teachers’ support in classes and this negligence further limits children’s learning ability in academic life.

“I don’t know the learning issues of the children, but this is my experience that majority of students who lost parents and siblings usually don’t participate in classes and they are not able to learn as well,” Adil Khan, a teacher at Islamia Model School Quetta said.

The current learning system is not suitable for emotionally disturbed students since majority of teachers don’t have the abilities to manage the victims’ behaviour in classrooms.

Aqeel Khan is an 11 year-old student whose father was killed in the civil hospital blast on August 8, 2016. Before the incident, He was an active student in creative activities in school as well as at home. But lost his interest in education and now is not able to focus on studies and feels no pleasure in learning because his mental state is not the same as it was before the incident.

Khan has three siblings and he is the eldest. He not only misses his father but also worries about his mother and siblings.

“How can I focus on studies when I see my mom crying every day,” Khan said. “When I start reading, suddenly my father’s memories come to mind, and then I become upset”.

If my dad were alive, these issues would not have happened to me, he said

Khan is good at arts; he went to his father’s grave on his first death anniversary. He said he draws an image of his father’s grave whenever he misses him.

Khan’s mother, who didn’t want to be named, said it was difficult for her to manage her son’s behaviour because he had became bad-tempered after the death of his father. “My son always refuses to go to school or play with his friends and feels afraid going out after the incident,” she said.

Like Khan’s mother, most parents of emotionally disturbed students are not satisfied with the current education system, blaming that the system was destroying the children’s future and schools don’t take responsibility of children’s learning problems.

She said that “the schools are responsible for students’ educational issues because it is the second family of the students. But instead to reduce children’s issues, teachers say these are issues created outside of schools and accuse students of not working hard enough”.

The weaknesses of the current education system has had a negative impact on a brilliant student like Khan and have adversely impacted the careers of a large number of students who had been victims of violence.

Published in Daily Times, December 8^th 2017.