In Pressure To Score 95%, Student Dies By Suicide: About Time We Address This

From Amir Khan To Biswa Kalyan Rath- many have begged and yelled for an immediate and long overdue change in the Indian Education System, but to no avail.

This system is failing its children time and again (and not just in exams), yet the stress only gets worse for the children.

Student Suicides

A teenage girl in class 10 killed herself on Friday, March 3, and left a suicide note in the Dausa district of Rajasthan. The 15-year-old teenager was preparing ready for her board examinations.  She explained in the note that she was anxious about her class 10 board examinations and that she couldn't bear the stress of getting more than 95 percent on her exams.

The child was reportedly studying with her four-year-old brother at their house in the Lalsaut neighbourhood of Dausa. While her parents weren't home, she killed herself by hanging herself with a rope. "I am sorry Mummy and Pappa. I can’t do this. I feel pressured due to the 10th board exams. I won’t be able to score more than 95 percent on the exams. I love you Papa, Mummy, and Rishabh. I am so sorry," wrote the girl in a brief suicide note. Clearly, the board exam stress is becoming too much for children to cope with.

Do you remember your high school days or have you blocked off the trauma? Yes, what the education system puts its children through is nothing less than trauma. Priya Gupta, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Kanpur, who already goes to various coaching centres and tuitions (apparently the pressure from school isn’t enough for children), is struggling to keep up with the tremendous expectations of her peers. When asked how she feels about this, her reply was heartbreaking. ‘Does it matter? If elders cared about how children feel then we wouldn’t have so many exams and homework.’

Children should not be subjected to the level of stress that schools do. According to psychologists, exam anxiety and traumatic disorder are common among students. Students experience anxiety, depression, and other negative effects as a result of fear.

Parents also contribute to the worry because they push their kids to achieve better grades. We asked Ayon Chatterjee, a 13-year-old class 7 student, what stresses him out the most about schools. Ayon said, ‘My class teacher always complains to my dad when I don’t do well. I hate that.’ He hates it because ‘dad gets angry when I get fewer marks and yells at me and punishes me a lot.’

Suggested reading- Student Suicides: When Will Society Realise Academics Don’t Define Students?