No agency to counsel stressed out wards

Hyderabad: There is a sudden spurt in self-harm, anorexia, aggression among students of corporate educational institutions whether it be in Telangana or Andhra Pradesh.

While the parents blame the government, the officials feel that they are helpless in the absence of guidelines or policy without which they cannot crack the whip against such institutions. Interestingly, the social welfare schools stand as stark examples of showing good results without the phenomena of stress.

So far, while one student is missing, seven have ended their lives in a span of three days creating panic among parents and accusing the government of its inaction against the corporate institutions.

But, experts in the field of education find fault with, both the parents and government for these incidents. Speaking to The Hans India, prominent educationist Chukka Ramaiah said, “The prime reason is gross negligence of the primary education by shifting the entire focus on to higher education by the government as higher education has become a big market.”

“The emotion levels of students of the school and college ages are very high. When they fail to meet the demands, or achieve the false aspirations imposed on them by parents and the system driving them, they lose self-esteem and feel helplessness. Dejected and feeling defeated by the situation around them at the schools and homes has been forcing them to resort to extreme steps,” he added.

Expressing a similar view, former Rajya Sabha member and Director of Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, Prof Mrinal Miri found fault with giving shape to the entire education system which is economy driven.

The wide gap between what is imparted and the skills in demand is resulting in many youngsters feeling useless and being trapped, triggering restlessness in them to take irreversible steps.

When contacted, sources in the State Youth Affairs Department said that the issue does not come under their purview. Similarly, the Medical and Health Department officials said there is no specific mandate for them to address the issue of youth suicides except conducting medical checkups for students in the government schools.

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education said that they could act only if the incident falls under the Anti-Ragging Act. Admitting that, the situation leaves lakhs of students in the corporate institutions outside of any policy framework, a senior official from the Board of Intermediate Education said, “adding a provision in the existing education act will empower the regulatory authority in dealing with such incidents,” she said.

However, officials in the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) said that engaging students regularly in cultural, sports and non-academic activities helped them to beat the stress-related issues.

Sharing his experience in dealing with the issue of student suicides Jodhpur District Collector Dr Ravikumar Surpur said that appointment of a clinical psychiatrist and Sunday holiday had been made mandatory for all the 40 coaching intuitions in Kota.

Each coaching center should run a helpline to take distress calls. Besides, preadmission counseling is made mandatory followed by a screening test. When a student wants to leave the college, they were given an exit option returning their fee of college and hostel in proportion to the days they stayed.

A regular and monthly meeting of all the stakeholders for two years which has been studied by Tata Institute of Social Sciences showed that we got positive results reducing the student suicides to four in the current year, he said.

By V R C Phaniharan