Arshi Alvi
Every time I saw young swimmers in action during the Rio Olympics, I thought of Saira Sirohi. She was an Olympic aspirant but fate had other plans.
Saira ended her life due to academic pressure. The teenaged swimming sensation was told by school authorities that she would be expelled from the school.
The girl with over 100 medals in different categories at the national level, ended her life. It happened months ago but the memory of the young swimmer still haunts me. Suicides due to academic pressure are a major challenge for the society.
According to data released by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), about 20 students take their lives everyday due to the stress that is either related to exams or desire to secure seats in prestigious schools apart fromtough competition. Maharastra tops the list followed by West Bengal.
Competition syndrome
In fact, parents are obsessed with a child's academic performance. Competition is good but to suffer from competition syndrome as we see in Indian society irrespective of any background the students come from, affects the child's overall growth resulting in emotional & nervous breakdown at times!
Who is to blame for this?
t's not only the fault of parents but teachers, institutes, society & education system is equally to blame. Unfortunately, we are yet to teach students how to cope with challenges in life with grace, dignity & empathy. Most of us still believe that if child cracks engineering-medical entrances or civil services, only then he/she is intelligent.
Basic problem is our flawed and skewed education system where performance pressure ranks above all, changes in education system over the years reflect the changes in the Indian middle class and their high aspirations which push young people to the stage where they have to either perform or perish! Sadly our education system forces students to learn what they may not need in life. This pattern of education needs to be changed for betterment of the society and coming generations.
Goal of education should be to turn children into better human beings
Education is not just gaining knowledge and information but understanding it to find better meaning of life, it should produce excellent humans and individuals rather than just giving us professionals & workers. According to Nelson Mandela, "Education is the most powerful weapon which can change the world"
On the level of common man, education is for life and it should help us in overcoming our fears/ flaws/ misery and help us in putting more emphasis on how beautiful life can be with all its lights & shadows. We should never get perturbed by our defeats, loss, failures, separation but should be better prepared to counter them with courage without becoming inhumane, cruel & apathetic.
Every child is unique
Every child is blessed with some unique qualities and every child has its own intelligence quotient level, they have their own special aptitude/ attitude /talent and Knack of doing things differently.
We should not over burden with what they are not interested in doing it. If they do not grow up to be engineer ,doctor will it be the end of the world aren't there more career options available which fascinates and evokes child's intense attraction towards itself like sports person, writer, journalist, fashion designer etc there are numerous professions to choose from!.
It’s our duty as teacher or parent to identify the area of interest and provide necessary guidelines, guidance & support system to nurture & safeguard their future. Our carion call should be "aspire to inspire" for star studded future of our children.
In this regard I would like to recall the two best movies made so far on this theme viz. Taare Zameen Par, which gives the message that every child is unique & other one is Three Idiots which tells the society to let the child pursue the career where his/her heart takes them.
Way to bring down suicide rate among students
In order to address and tackle the problem of teenage suicides which is illustrates discontent and hopelessness displayed by our society, we need to rise up, act upon it, until our life becomes Jargon full of fights which we do every day for something or the other either with someone else or we fight within ourselves due to untold miseries.
For this purpose government, Academic Institutions, NGOs , Teachers, Parents should all come up on one common platform. In my opinion schools should start giving the students the skills necessary to cope up with life challenges besides that, parenting counselling cell should also come up where programs should be conducted for the purpose of the improvement of mental and emotional health of both parents & students.
[Arshi Alvi is a writer based in Lucknow. Her twitter handle is: @arshi7khan]
