On 5th September 2022, while the country celebrated Teacher’s Day, the Government of India released findings of its first survey on the mental health of students from Class 6th to 12th, showing that a majority of school students’ mental health declined in secondary school in India primarily due to the anxiety caused while struggling with studies, exams and results. Covid-19 has brought mental health issues to the forefront of discussions, however this struggle of students with unrealistic expectations and standards of success is far longer and deeper. According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry (2019), at least 50 million children in India, even before the pandemic, were affected by mental health issues, of which 80–90 per cent have not sought support. A cursory glance at advertisements in any popular publication will throw up words like Rank holder, Ace, Topper, Perfect score as markers of success. India’s obsession with marks and attaining the perfect score creates a world less than perfect for our young ones. Narrow markers of success exclude 90% of our children.
Despite the preoccupation with academic excellence, there is a bigger lacuna of unemployment among the educated youth in India. According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data 2022, unemployment levels have consistently remained well above 8% for the past two years with many graduates unemployed. Despite forcing students to study and study well, we do not have enough jobs to employ each of them. How are we preparing them for the future? Isn’t it time to analyse the outputs of the education system and how far the current system is preparing our children for unforeseen challenges? According to the 2021 NCRB report, the number of students who have died by suicide has increased by 77% since 2010. This figure is in no way holistic as NCRB data collates its information from police records and excludes instances for which no First Information Report (FIR) exists.
Unrealistic expectations from young people accentuated by the loss inflicted by the pandemic is a breeding ground for mental illness. Stigma towards mental health support and a lack of access to mental wellbeing services for children from marginalised and vulnerable backgrounds prevents many from getting the care they need. Is it possible to remedy this by making student wellbeing the core of our teaching and learning process in schools? Can we redefine success to being the best version of ourselves rather than competing with others? Is it time to shift our lens from competition to collaboration for our collective future based on empathy, dignity and inclusion?
The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 highlights the urgent need for ensuring ‘not only cognitive development, but holistic education of children nurturing the development of competencies such as communication, cooperation, team work and resilience among students’. The fact that life skills curriculum is often referred to as a non-cognitive curriculum is a dichotomy in itself. Life skills activities involve cognitive intelligence with conscious intellectual activity (involving, but not restricted to, thinking, reasoning, remembering etc) and to refer to it as non-cognitive negates its significance. NEP 2020 recognises that major developmental changes occur in children during the middle to secondary stages. Academic pressures, problems at home, peer issues, managing failure, emerging realisations about gender or sexual identity, or uncertainty about their future are just some of the things that can cause a build-up of stressors that trigger a mental health concern among students. Depression, anxiety, body image issues, eating disorders, addictions and substance abuse disorders are some of the mental health concerns that may arise during this time. It can be a terribly isolating and bleak experience to deal with these while also not knowing what one is going through. It is not surprising then that one Indian student ends up taking their own life every hour. NEP highlights that it is essential to recognise the variations in student performance as ‘differences’ among students and not indications of ‘deficits’ in them. Psycho-educational interventions based on these differences, which will facilitate all students in maximising their potential, is the need of today.
In 2020, the Ministry of Education launched Manodarpan to provide psychosocial support to students and teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. Many State governments are in diverse ways trying to address the mental wellbeing of students. The Happiness Curriculum started by the Government of Delhi addresses anxiety, grief and mental stress. The curriculum dedicates 35 minutes every day for happiness classes based on mindfulness and activities that build empathy, critical thinking, reflection and other life skills in students. Karnataka’s Baduku Community college started a 6 month life skills and mental health course. Government of Telangana is designing and implementing the Emotional Wellbeing curriculum (now called Project Parivartana). As a recommendation of the 2022 survey, the NCERT has recommended that all schools set up mental health advisory panels to ensure the well-being of their students. Mental health also got attention of the Indian policy makers at the national level in this year’s budget. With the intention set, it is time for action.
One of the best ways to address the mental health crisis among youth in India is to incorporate mental health education into the mainstream curriculum. It is important to open the classroom to topics like depression, suicide prevention, sexuality, abuse, developing empathy, controlling negative thoughts, building healthy coping mechanisms, etc. When children are able to learn about mental health from a young age, they develop a deeper understanding of how their minds and emotions work. This lays a strong foundation of skills to manage emotions, build healthy relationships and to confidently navigate the world in which they live. It helps them develop empathy and teaches them to be inclusive and kind. In the long run, it helps them function better in academics, develop better social relationships and have a better chance of leading a happy and successful life. Can the Happiness curriculum move beyond the 35-minute period to become the curriculum adopted to impart knowledge of every subject in school? Are teachers ready to move to a facilitative style of teaching where students can reach out to them in moments of despair? Students who grow up with a strong foundation of mental health will also go on to transform the mental health scenario in their future workplaces, with their parents and family, and in the world at large.
Out of the 13,089 students who died by suicide in 2021 7,396 were male and 5,693 were female. In the NCERT report 2022, more boys were anxious because of studies and examination related aspects in comparison to girls. Is it because traditionally the boy faces familial and societal pressure to fend for his family and thus the added stress? Death by suicide among students has been known to be driven by caste-based discrimination and by familial and societal pressure to score higher in standardised tests. We need to adopt the intersectionality lens to understand the child, their problems, socio-economic and cultural background and solutions to their problems in their lived reality. Since suicides are preventable, awareness needs to begin early. Parents should be encouraged to talk about the importance of mental health at home without being uncomfortable. Psycho-education for teachers and school staff regarding signs of depression and suicidal behaviour should become more available. Policy-makers, service providers and educators alike must create robust systems that address the country’s severely underserved mental health needs giving autonomy to people to manage their mental health.
In the best interest of our children, let us reimagine the purpose of education to the thriving of our children. Thriving is an inner state of confidence and surety in one’s own self which can be built in a nurturing, mindful, holistic and facilitative learning environment to make every child resilient, responsible and happy enough to strive for their mental wellbeing. This year’s World Mental Health Day is a chance to rekindle efforts to improve mental health and make it a global priority, it is time to enable thriving for all young people!
About the author: Saba Ahmad is a Copy editor, with the Communications team at Dream a Dream