Education and Stress

Child's education, scores, and ranks have become a hot topic at all social gatherings. Whether it is a single or double income family, every parent is racing and forcing the child to race and meet the goals set by school/ college, social standards, institutions of higher education, peer competition, etc.
Whether the child has adequate compatibility is given a back seat. Ultimately, it is the child, on whom the entire load is put. So naturally, a child is stressed, depressed sometimes, and slowly becomes indifferent. Morning study hours, monitored either by parents or tutors, school hours, evening special or extra tutor hours, night -completion of homework, and revision of day's lessons; when I think of a child's day, I am, indeed, panicked. The child has no time to play and relax. He/She has become a machine. Most of the time tuition absorbs the free hours of the child. Has the modern education system led to an increasing dependence on coaching institutions? It seems to be so.

Illustration: Ratna Sagar Shrestha/ THT

Many parents send their children to coaching classes or tuitions even at a very early age. Right from the time of primary schooling, these kids start going to tuitions. This is where precisely a parent (if the parent is a high school graduate) can easily manage to give extra drill or reinforcement to the child at home itself. Probably, a little extra effort is needed on the parent's part. The child can learn, sitting on the lap of its mother or father. Why should the child be denied this privilege?


When the child passes into higher classes, certainly, it is beyond a moderately educated parent. They cannot coach subjects like Maths, English, Science. So they send their children for tuitions to different places subject-wise. After school hours also children are over-burdened and they are robbed of their rest and entertainment. Why do they need these extra hours of study? Our children must get 90% and above. In spite of it, they don't get admissions and jobs. The result is depression, stress, and suicide. So kids have to maximize their output, even to qualify themselves to be part of the rat race. A child becomes a factory as the selection criteria are dependent on various inputs like time, money, food (energy), comforts (rest, entertainment), etc.

Thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore believed that nothing should be forced on a child. A child should grow naturally. But education is becoming very formal - pen, paper, book, and guide, help book, sample papers, and add computers, CDs, the internet also to this list. 

How to help the children

Parents, Educationists, and policymakers have to come together. Of course, the students too. Students can avoid the extra study hours in the name of tuitions by listening well in the classes, by being focused on difficult areas, and seeking doubt clarification with concern subject teachers. Teachers never deny this extra time a child seeks to learn properly. Even schools can arrange remedial teaching classes for weak learners and specially programmed study hours in the school premises itself (after school hours) for the above-average learners. Of course, the extra coaching hours and efforts of the teacher have to be rewarded befittingly. If school authorities, teachers, parents, and students work hand-in-hand, there won't be any question of stress - for students, teachers (who look for an extremely good result) parents, and of course, the school/college authorities, the ranking of which goes up easily.