Exam Fear Leads To All Time High In Student Suicides, Where Are We Going Wrong?

Student suicides have alarmingly increased to an all-time high. In the latest news coming from the Tenkasi district in Tamil Nadu, a 21-year-old girl, Rajalakshmi, allegedly died by suicide in the fear of her NEET result which is due on September 7. According to reports, the girl took this drastic step out of fear that she would fail the exam and fall short of realising her dream of becoming a doctor. She had not cleared the NEET exam on her previous two attempts, a fact that could be the cause of her anxiety regarding the results.

With exam season in the country across multiple entrances and departments, exam fear is palpable in the air. Pressure to compete with one another, to top class or a professional entrance course, or to prove their worth in front of their folks and society, students not only face immense fear and stress but also slide into anxiety, depression and in some cases, suicide because they can’t take it anymore. 

Every day we read about young students who take their lives because they are either stressed to appear for examinations or fear failing to clear them. A few days ago, two boys reportedly hung themselves at their houses in New Delhi because they were under immense pressure to perform well. A few months back, a first-year medical student at the Maulana Azad Medical College allegedly died by suicide owing to depression after failing exams. She was found hanging from the ceiling of her hostel room. 

NCRB Data shows student suicides are at a five-year high in the country, out of which most are from Maharashtra

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, student suicides rose by 4.5 percent in 2021. Maharashtra recorded 1,834 student suicides in the said year, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The NCRB's Accidental Deaths and Suicide in India (ADSI) report 2021 shows that while student suicides saw an alarming rise in the pandemic years of 2020 (12,526 suicides among students) and 2021 (as many as 13,089) , the number had been increasing in the last five years, with a 32.15 percent rise since 2017.

Suggested reading: Medical College Student Dies By Suicide, Was Suffering From Depression After Failing Exam

Where are we going wrong?

Most suicides which are undertaken by teenagers are a result of the collective failure of the system. The system includes their families, society, education institutes, lack of proper structural education, and the unhealthy pressure of competing. 

Recently, the Principal of the APSIS institute, wrote a heartwarming note to the guardians of students, mentioning that the parents must encourage students to embrace their unique identity, and accept others with theirs. The Principal went on to write how families need to explain to their children that the primary purpose of education is to learn and not to compete.

We spoke to Jagriti Grover, a doctorate scholar in clinical psychology, on the matter, who shared, “Students, especially teenagers, experience stress, fear, and complications, especially during and after examinations. Families and even school administrations must understand that each child is unique and that merely passing or topping an exam does not ensure success or triumph. A student needs to learn, realise their strengths and weaknesses and become better versions of themselves. We need to teach children and their folks that grades aren't everything that’s life supposed to be."

Personality development teacher and coordinator Prabhleen Malhi, on the other hand, revealed how students competing for admissions in both India’s top universities, and the world IVY leagues colleges have to endure “pressure to outperform one another in the country of more than one billion people," which is unhealthy to say the least. Malhi further said, "What I see during my lessons is that students are paying less attention to their strengths and focusing more on how to compete with other students."

Meanwhile Puneet Goyal, Principal of a senior secondary school in Uttarakhand, opined that in this day and age of digitalisation and acute pressure to compete and perform in all departments the line between healthy and unhealthy competition has blurred. "I believe we need to take collective responsibility to make students feel seen, aware and confident enough to realise their unique strengths and study to primarily gain knowledge and not merely get grades. Schools and colleges need to do that right from the start, but also families need to make them comfortable in their beings back at home. The unnecessary competition where they compare their child to neighbours, relatives or anyone, for that matter, is not required in this day and age. If anything, it leads to more stress and self-doubt. We have a responsibility towards students, and we need to make our environments healthier to raise them to live without fear and stress.”

While students crumble under pressure to get excellent grades and gain admission to prestigious institutions to land jobs and further their well-paying careers, they also fall into the web of proving themselves to be better than their peers and engage in unhealthy competition in life. Where does this pressure come from? What makes students fear exams, fear results, and fear falling short of expectations? Why do families pressure their children to outperform others, and to engage in unhealthy competitions? Why is there not a proper system in place to tackle issues pertaining to students’ mental health? Why are there fewer opportunities in a highly populated country like ours? The questions are several, and unless we collectively don’t answer and implement solutions, we’re far from tackling this situation.