This article discusses about the recent suicide cases of young students due to failure in academics. It divulges the reason for that and suggests some solution to this precarious trend.

As famous writer Phil Donahue said, “Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem”, it looks like many of our younger generation are opting for the ‘so called’ permanent solution to even smaller problems in their life. And, the recent increase in the number of suicide cases of young students across the country, owing to the poor academic performance, would vouch for that. If the real reason for this is dug out, it would turn out not really to be the poor performance of the students but it is the lack of proper motivation from the school and parents side. Students are made completely oblivious to the other options available to them and are enforced with the burden of securing the highest ranks and subsequently a place in the reputed colleges and medical institutions.

What has crept into the minds of the students and their parents that makes them to even take their life for granted and struggle for merits and top ranks? To begin with, Students are only taught how to work harder and concentrate on their school subjects and fair well in their exams. They are not properly educated about the various other career options available to them. “So what if I don’t study well? I have this career option to pick up….I have this passion to pursue” should be the attitude of every student. And they should be exclusively trained on this, that is, in parallel to education the importance should also be given to attitude building. But, It does not mean students can simply skip the studies and take up some hobby or passion to pursue. It is that, Students who cannot really concentrate or fair well in their exams will be surely gifted with some talent or the other. So why not tap their potential and make their lives easier and happy, instead of pushing them into the same old path and finally to see them hanging one day.

A very recent instance is the death of an IIT student in the northern India and the reason cited is that she failed in two subjects. This is really daunting and this clearly indicates that students are motivated in the wrong way that they should study to live. But practically, the student should be made to understand how living is more important than studying. After all education is one of the ways to make the life easier and comfortable to live, but definitely not the only way.

So what is the solution? And what is the strategy to be adopted?

Sadly, The Indian Education system is also to be blamed for the student’s ignorance and the biased view. Because the whole concept of schooling is to carry books, read books, and live with books and the system is complacent with its current method. Hence students right from childhood to adult age firmly believe studying is something related to books and if they don’t master their books their life is gone for the toss. This is a completely incorrect and perilous notion that they carry. Hence, school should comprise everything in equal proportions.

Say if studying is 50% then the remaining 50% should comprise of activities like sports, music, painting, dancing etc. And more importantly the hobbies should also be made compulsory like the other subjects. Each student should compulsorily take up a hobby and in parallel they have to be trained on that too. This is only a step towards making the students realize that apart from studies there are so many wonderful things in the world to pursue. This way, they can also get rid of that attitude of “INABILITY” from their mind and in turn will gear up and emerge as masters in their own field.

So it’s time now for the country to seriously think of the pitfalls in the current education system After all, when every country’s development is dependant on youngster’s it is  equally important that the development of the youngsters are also properly taken care by the country.

Authored By Susheela Subramanian