NEW DELHI, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Student suicides in India have been spiralling in recent years, either in schools or on cusp of higher education.
According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, one student commits suicide every hour in India.
In 2017, the number of student suicides stood at nearly 10,000. In the five years leading to 2017, 42,775 students had killed themselves. This excludes the number of attempted suicides, which is likely to be much higher.
Experts said suicides are indirectly a reflection of something wrong and tragic about the education system in India.
In kota, a city located in southeast of northern Indian state of Rajasthan, almost 60 students between 14 and 17 years committed suicide last year. The city is famous for its nearly 130-odd coaching institutes which cater to engineering and medical aspirants from all over the country.
Expert believed that in a bid to get admission to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and medical colleges, students as young as 13 years are enrolled in dummy schools which, though recognized on paper, do not require attendance. Students are insulated to prepare solely for entrance exams.
"If they succeed, they become pictures of achievement and a desirable life ahead. If not, failure brings disappointment and an eventual sense of worthlessness that leads to suicide. It is this later aspect where lies the failure of the Indian education system," said Rajat Behl, a psychologist based in Delhi.
"It cannot only be the pressure of exams and excelling in future aspirations that could answer this question. If anything, it would be simplistic to assume that stress was the only driving force behind suicides," said Suman Dey Sarkar, another psychologist.
"Besides the pressure of being the best and living up to parental expectations, it is the educational system that traps students into believing that success lies in certain disciplines and occupations. Rather than nurturing human capacities, this system encourages rote and mechanical learning sucking students of their natural scientific and creative minds," he added.
"The board classes are worse and pressure to top is high. It is a policy failure where the state supports such a system and encourages it by giving nod to private education and institutions like coaching centres which are mostly unrecognized," he said.
In places like Kota, students feel the competition is so strong that one automatically gets consumed by it.
"Competition deserves support of loved ones. Often, students feel isolated in their struggle as parents knowingly and unknowingly transfer their expectations on children. Students feel hopeless and worthless if they cannot meet such expectations. In such an atmosphere, students find killing themselves an easy way out," said Delhi-based counsellor Sujat Sharma.
