DNA Edit: Education’s eclipse

India is in the grips of a silent epidemic. Pressure to perform well, nay, outstandingly on the academic front is pushing a number of Indian students over the edge. In 2016 alone, close to nine and half thousand students put an end to their life.

In the six years to 2016, a total of 49,249 students took the ultimate step, in everlasting shame for the Indian education system. None of these lives that have been so callously lost to the overwhelming pressure piled on students - thanks to the disproportionate importance attached to exams and rote-learning- will ever be redeemed in full measure.

However, the Ministry of Human Resource Development is taking a small remedial step to counter this scourge by circulating a suicide prevention manual to higher education institutes in India.

Essentially, the manual lays out traits that will help educators identify symptoms of vulnerability in students. Additionally, it provides for a buddy programme and a double-blind helpline, where both the caller and the counsellor are unaware of each other’s identity.

Hopefully, with an apt allocation of funds to this programme, the undertaking will go a long way in stemming the rising trend of depression that is surfacing amongst the students. Obviously, the enormity of the crisis is such that a simplistic manual will not suffice in controlling the spread of this problem.

Education organisations will have to lay down a comprehensive policy chalking out mental health standards and follow through with detailed assessment programmes for students hailing from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, teaching faculties across the spectrum will also have to be groomed to refrain from heaping pressure on students.