Every year, news of suicides of students triggers breaking headlines in India, a billion plus nation where parents have always wanted their children to be the best and brightest.
The parents do not want to compromise. And there lies the biggest problem.
No one denies that the future of a child — arguably — is the biggest concern to a parent. But then, our educational institutes are always on the lookout for the top students, the race starts from the school where scholar badges create a strange divide in the classrooms.
So what happens? In their efforts to push students to maintain their reputation, parents feel pressured and compelled to raise the bar too high for their students to match up to the standards set by these education institutions. What do the parents want? I have a feeling that parents these days are just worried about how the world would perceive their students. And that causes the crisis. This is a crisis of performing nothing but the best, rushing to win a seemingly endless race.
For the last two years, Indians — knowing very well jobs are drying up in the West — have pushed their children to colleges in the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada and the United States. In 2022, an estimated 7.7 lakh Indian students went abroad to study — the highest in six years — and many faced severe challenges in finding jobs later. This was highlighted by M Square Media, a Canada-based education firm. This is not all. The Indian Education Ministry said only 22% of Indian students who studied abroad between 2015-2019 were able to secure employment on returning home.
So, one thing is clear.
Parents — based on how others are performing — often generalise the idea of excellence and success. This is certainly not the right approach but not many studies have come up in India to dissuade parents from taking this highly convoluted approach. As a result, parents continue to follow the wrong path, adopt the wrong approach. And the results are often devastating. Consider this one. Over 13,000 students died in India in 2021 at the rate of more than 35 every day, mainly due to failure in examinations.
The idea of excellence and success is often generalised by Indian parents based on how others are performing. Apart from academics, there are expectations from the children to excel in sports, music and arts. So there is no wholesome development of a student who is constantly pushing boundaries that eventually lead to disappointment, anxiety, stress and suicide. Countless studies in India have said time and again that students routinely experienced pressure from their teachers and parents to perform better academically. As a result, this very harsh competition and limited opportunities make the academic journey highly stressful.
It is like a Catch-22 situation. India continues to produce some of the world’s best CEOs and they have all been educated in the West. So, the craze for getting admitted in a top global university will not disappear very soon, unless Indian colleges really match up to the global standards. Some have scaled up their standards but not everyone. And there lies the catch.
So Indian schools are under high pressure to produce over a million talented students each year. The competent attitude of the students helps them excel in various fields. But hold it. The students also encounter high pressure to get top grade marks to gain admission to the preferred course and college.
And there are countless challenges to encounter. This is not happy news; you can always ask the students. And that’s not all. The pressure felt by the students reflects on their parents, it can easily be deciphered on the faces of the parents who invest a lot of cash and time to ensure this stupendous success for their children.
Isn’t this total madness?
I have often wondered why parents do not think differently when it comes to educating their wards? After all, they can easily take the lead, play some pivotal roles and take the right decisions. This is very crucial because decisions taken at the right time and in the right manner always create the best foundation for children, both in school and college.
Will Indian parents ever learn that doing is the new learning? They need to know that the mad rush for high marks should be dropped and it will save students from unnecessary pressure and anxiety and help them realise the benefits of education. What is more important is that the students would be exposed to the practical world, they will understand what skills and traits are important and what are not. They will have futuristic knowledge and skills, else they will be lost in this big race of grades.
India’s education system has evolved, actually accelerated by the pandemic and increasingly, Indian parents are now guiding their children to take the right courses. It has not worked overnight because the Covid is still hovering around but Indian students are learning to lessen the burden of multiple examinations. Actually, I have a feeling that parents in India are now seeking the right kind of examinations which, in turn, can push their children into colleges of their choice. Parents now know the importance of certification courses in the job market.
Apart from a variety of considerations, educated parents emphasise a balanced study pattern that may improve students’ overall personality and help them attain long-lasting success. Overall, Indian parents in the current age are helping students realise their strengths and supporting them with value-added courses such as certificates in IT and other skill-building and aptitude-based programmes. That’s why they encourage students to choose the Pearson Undergraduate Entrance Examination, which greatly increases potential success and opens doors for more lucrative career opportunities.
This is a good move, by all standards.
India’s nightmarish college admission — interestingly — starts in May. It has — for decades — reminded the students that every year that there is very little in life if your marks are below 97%. This has been nerve shattering for thousands of students filling up forms for the entrance examinations. Everyone hopes some college will lower the bar, admissions would be easy. In Delhi alone, more than 4,50,000 students vie for an estimated 56,000 seats in undergraduate courses. It has always been all about mounting numbers and huge crowds of students seeking admissions for the best colleges. This is a system that has refused to change for long.
This needs to change. Else, private colleges will continue to charge high fees and parents will have to pledge family jewellery or insurance certificates to take loans. One needs to remember that India’s education loan stands at a whopping ₹21,000 crore. The average size of education loans for domestic colleges is ₹4,00,000 while for overseas education, it ranges between ₹50-60 lakh. And then, there is a Rs 32,000 crore test-preparatory market flourishing, especially in cities like Kota.
This cannot continue anymore, and parents cannot impose their own unfulfilled ambitions on their children, and the children should not be on the edge all the time.
Happy that parents in India are changing, let this change stay. Let this change be constant.
V. VijayaSai Reddy is a Member of Parliament and the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture. He is the national general secretary of the YSR Congress Party.
