Death by suicide of a young student with a beckoning future ahead is a deep scar on society and reeks of an education system that is exploitative and uncaring and which misses the signs of mental health where the young are crying out silently but desperately for help. This works at several levels. Firstly, it reflects cogently on a society where marks alone are the yardsticks of success and nothing else matters. Parents as the first responders often miss the danger signs that their kids are facing in a desperate situation. Teachers are too busy dishing out facts to have the time for any emotional hand-holding that adolescents with a fragile state of mind are crying out for. The presence of counsellors in schools is not of much help as students don’t want to be identified as those “needing emotional help and support,” simply because they don’t want to be judged.
The youth today walk the dangerous path of a life where empathy from parents and the educational system are both missing. So where do the young turn to in such desperate situations when neither family members nor teachers are able to read their silent cries for help; much less respond to such emotional roller coasters? Clearly our education system and society have both failed the youth who are emotionally drained yet are unable to articulate their need for robust emotional support because the system has not developed such a system. Without a crisis management centre in place students are unable to manage the stress of an educational system that fails to measure their other cognitive domains except those that test their ability to learn by rote. Our youth are not given the space to speak out against the very system that pushes them to take desperate steps such as taking away their own precious lives. Parents that have high expectations from their kids actually themselves need counselling and teachers should go through a crash course on identifying the signs of mental health in their students and of giving them the space to just unburden themselves. How many teachers actually have time to listen with empathy without lecturing to an already traumatised youth? Traumatised by the need to meet the rigorous expectations of a system that relies heavily on marks and misses out the other significant features of education such as the recognition of a young person’s unique aptitudes and how to hone those for a life that presents challenges on multiple fronts and not just a cut and dried; tried and tested marking system.
The death of a young and aspiring youth should trigger a societal debate instead of it being just another media report that does not shake up the system. The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) represents a system that has all but failed the students and drained their emotions, turning them into listless automatons who only really matter to their parents and teachers when they secure ‘good’ marks. This system is fraught and needs a complete overhaul after consulting educational and mental health experts. Parents must be part of this repairing process.
