Frantic calls from students about to take board exams are flooding counselors and most of the calls pertain to advice on how to overcome the parental pressure, questions on grading system, question paper patterns, and fear of memory loss.

The stress levels of youth of today seem to be on an all-time high, which is evident from the fact that most calls were made at midnight.

From Timesofindia.indiatimes.com:

The incidents of students attempting to suicide, preferring isolation and a sudden change in behaviour has been reported in the past couple of weeks. Mahendru said that in the last lap of preparation when studies were in full throttle, poor marks in pre-boards worries students.

She receives 20-25 screened calls a day, including five hyper calls which require high level of attention and expertise to handle. Most of the students fail to follow a proper time table. They focus on main subjects, including maths and science.

In this month alone four suicides by school students have rocked the city. The increasing pressure from the parents and the society has been continuously taking a toll on students. Over 1.25 lakhs students in 80 CBSE schools in the city are appearing in boards exams.

It is important for parents to realize that their kind support and patience can help their children get better examination scores and the incidents of suicides by students reduce to a significant extent.

Many parents and so-called owners of society feel that exam stress is one of the biggest reasons behind more and more young students committing suicides. However, recent incidents of students suicides have suggested that teachers must draw the line as far as punishment goes.

Since the mind and heart of a student is too soft to take any punishment, teachers and fellow students must be taught lessons to respect students and fellow students, respectively.

From in.yfittopostblog.com:

On February 12 this year, a 13-year-old Class VII student, Rouvanjit Rawla, was told to bring his parents along to meet the school principal; and on that very afternoon, he was found hanging. In the run-up to the fateful day, Rouvanjit was slapped by his teacher, caned by the principal and was made to stand in the sun for several days. Now, haven’t we seen this in schools here, either a victim or as the classmate of one?

As the media focus slowly fades, this incident too would gather dust along with other incidents of student deaths due to humiliation and harassment. Personally, I don’t have much of an opinion about the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) as every time such an incident takes place, all we hear is the registering of a complaint and some probing. Shouldn’t NCPCR be more proactive, use probe results to come-up with concrete steps – like having regular sessions with students along with sensitization drives with parents and teachers?

While it’s a pity that such dastardly steps are taken, it’s criminal if a child feels he/she has nowhere to go for a grievance redressal. It’s also the inaction by government agencies coupled with the archaic laws that don’t bring to light repeated offenders.

Until we all, as society members, take the onus of encouraging future of the nation, things cannot change and we will be doing nothing but playing the blame games.