How much pressure is too much pressure ?
In a country like India where a set of beliefs govern our ideologies, it is getting increasingly difficult to break out of the rut. We are so habituated with the constant chase for grades, ranks, placements and the “perfect job” that any deviation from the same seems unacceptable. Our mindsets, so fixed, refuse to believe that there is hope beyond the oh so mighty Indian Educational path which is predetermined by the needs of yesteryear but still manages to permeate even today.
Every child in our homeland is riddled with the pressure of attaining the perfect grade, graduating with the perfect degree and then eventually settling with a perfect job. This linear mindset makes it impossible for us to acknowledge a life beyond this set of instructions, laid down for each one of us to follow to the T. It is deeply ingrained within us that this is the only right way to go about life. The right way or no way at all mindset dwindles our ability to face failures. We fail to understand that the set way of life that everyone believes to be the holy grail isn’t necessarily the right way for everybody. Here are some statistics that show the extent of this internalized fear. According to a 2021 report by the National Crimes Record Bureau, over 13,000 students died in the year 2020 due to suicide of which 1673 students resorted to this measure owing to failure in their examinations. 864 of the students who took their lives owing to this reason were under the age of 18. This goes to show how deeply every child believes the institution of education to be the epitome of success. Young, capable minds, riddled with constant pressure, find it easier to take their lives than to face failure.
On my personal path I have witnessed multiple such cases, my two best friends from high school found it easier to self harm and deprive their parents & friends of their lifelong company than to face subjected failure in school. My firsthand experience of losing my friends and my father to suicide additional to the alarming numbers call for an almost immediate need to reform our mindsets towards education. The number of suicides should be indication enough that something is inherently wrong in our approach towards education. In the race of being the best academically, we have become slaves to the system, keeping aside one of the most important end goals of education, to actually understand & learn from what we are learning.
Co-Creator : Meherzeen Siganporia