Educational Stress among Students

Education, even though being a development factor, tends to come off with loads of pressure on the young minds. And it works on the assumption that everyone is good at everything or rather everyone should be good at everything.

India is a country that faces the problem of student suicides and has one of the highest rates of suicide among young people aged between 15 and 29 years.  Although the reasons can be different, failure in examination, unemployment, and depression are some of the most common reasons why the youth ends up taking this extreme step. Right from the pressure that parents put on their child to do well in important board exams to incapability of handling a career choice are the reasons that have encouraged the youth to takes such extremes measures without confining to anyone. We have all read news and seen headlines about students committing suicide on the result day or on examination day. But what can be so extreme that they decide to take such steps?

From years, we have heard complaints regarding how the India education system is more of a system that prints the labels of excellence and failure rather than focussing on what the students are interested in. The system has always followed a single system of flow and education for all students regardless their efficiency, interests and likings. It has focussed more on memorization and grades. The grades that a child gets in the 10^th grade is the decider of his/her future rather than likings of the student. These grades are also the determiner of which college or university will the student get into and study in. Then there are various entrance exams for various streams and universities which further increases further stress due to the cut throat competition. What further escalates their stress is their fear of failure to do well in the studies which has very negative effects on their academics as well as social success because the academic success is the determiner of how successful an individual can be. And parents to tend to put a lot of pressure on their children to achieve good grades and as a punishment tend to turn them off from the recreational and development activities.

In a recent survey conducted, two-thirds (66%) students reported that their parents pressurize them for better academic performance. According to psychologists’ students tend to suffer from anxiety and nervousness due to fear of examination. This fear is a major reason why students suffer from anxiety, nervousness and depression, this fear arises from the school and parents, who go to extreme levels in pushing their children to get better grades.

We need to understand that every child is different and everyone learns differently. They have their own ways of studying and coping but the external pressure sabotages them. They should understand that exams and grades are not a sign of success or failure. To take care of this issue, our system should try to inculcate choice based and age-based curriculum from the start to help the students’ mental health. We should encourage self-learning and project-based learning in the students. And the most important, we as a society should keep in mind that exams are just a small step and they do not determine and student’s worth.