We live in an increasingly competitive world. Understandably, parents are reacting to it. So are educators and politicians. Everyone wants their children (by birth, by tutorial or by school) to be the best. The result: increased pressure on kids to achieve better grades, get higher test scores and realise greater academic outcomes. Another result, though, is greater childhood stress and anxiety. And the consequence - pressure that often even leads to suicides!

It is really unfortunate that suicide or similar incidents by students in colleges and schools across India has been rising tremendously. Every time results are announced, we hear about a spate of student suicides because they could not secure admission in their colleges of choice or could not get enough marks to please their parents and tutors.

Young adults often face difficulties in living up to the expectations of their parents and peer group. In countries like ours, where jobs are scarce and competitions many, resources scarce and desires plenty (fuelled by lucrative advertisements on TV and Internet), parents have a single-point agenda to see their child among the top rankers — a gateway to a good job. But often this agenda, without their being conscious, laced with myriads of their own unfulfilled dreams, increases the pressure on the child manifold. Most children feel pressurised and at the end of the day lead an average life. It’s only a few, who attain great successes, and I certainly wish them all the best, but I wonder at what cost are they able to achieve all of that.

Parents play an important role in their children’s achievement. But parents of high-achieving students play a detrimental role by piling pressure on their children to achieve at unrealistically high levels or to satisfy their needs. Parents of academically-talented children are often found pushing their wards to achieve at exceptional levels sooner than usual.

While there is empirical evidence that parent factors have a positive association with, or facilitate, children’s achievement, it is important to ponder on their unrealistic expectations that create pressure and foster performance anxiety in their kids.

Many are turning to outside sources to help their children succeed. Tutorials and test-preparatory businesses are booming as parents rush to enrol their children in courses to increase their scores. After-school academic enrichment programmes promise to help kids to excel. As one popular tutorial boasts, “Our ultimate goal is for all students to study above their capabilities...”

Similarly, the student and teacher relationship needs to change from the former being just a ‘number’. Teachers need to look beyond a test score while dealing with students who need academic help or guidance through personal problems.

It is sadly ironic that they lure students and create a false sense of competition and urgency making the young minds lose sleep, lose on leisure hours and thus become bookworms and indulge in a percentage war.

Children have also got completely caught in the web of high marks, high percentage and high grades. There are students who take up multiple coaching classes a day and that means sleeping is restricted to less than six hours. Why avoiding sleep? Pat comes the reply: To score more in exams. But recent research studies state just the opposite - cutting on sleep would slash scores. Students complaining of sleep disorders are on the rise of late, though study is only one of the reasons.

“Sleep is crucial both for memory retention and critical thinking,” says Dr. Preeti Galagali, who runs the Bangalore Adolescent Care and Counselling Centre. “Sleep plays a restorative function in the body. It is also important for the cognitive functioning of the brain,” Galagali says. Lack of sleep, therefore, is likely to affect studies. “When a student sleeps after studying, whatever is cluttering his/her memory clears and the mind starts processing which has been learned,” she says. Quoting a study, she said about 12 per cent of students sleep during classes.

Research says that suicide is the sixth leading cause of death among those between six and 14 and the third leading cause for those in the age-group of 15 to 25. India reportedly ranks highest in the number of teenage suicides and recent studies suggest about 40 per cent of them are adolescents.

In Mumbai alone, 25 students have taken their lives since the beginning of this year, leaving parents, teachers and officials struggling to understand the reason behind the deaths. The suicides are a wake-up call for all of us as responsible citizen and protector of the next generation. Psychologist Dr. Sudha Bhogle from Bangalore asserts that lack of a peer network and social support, coupled with high parental expectations, can cause suicidal tendencies. “Suicide is rarely impulsive. There are signs always, that should raise alarm bells,” she says. Bhogle adds that our educational system is largely to blame for the stress that students face.

“Our educational system should instil confidence in children and not pull them down. We need to make students understand that exams are not the ultimate stamp of excellence. Career counselling is a must to test the aptitude of the child to avert putting any undue academic pressure on them. There should be a strong peer network on the campus, where students can take cognisance of what their peers are up to. If anything is found to be amiss, teachers/ counsellors should be informed so that correctional action can be taken.”

If students are going to spend best years of their life focusing only on percentages, methodology of cracking entrances, what about knowledge and intellectual growth they are supposed to imbibe in these crucial years of their development? The ramifications extend beyond the current physical and psychological toll. There may very well be a price they pay in their future. For example, such a mind and body numbing educational experience will suck out any joy of learning they may have in them. The current emphasis on rote memorisation will sap their internal motivation to learn.

As highlighted in Race to Nowhere (Jim Taylor), today’s students may lack critical thinking, creativity, and focus necessary to survive, much less thrive, as they enter higher education and the working world. Teachers and parents should emphasise on children’s progress rather than focusing solely on grades and test scores. Learning takes time and each step in the process should be rewarded, especially at early stages when students most likely will experience failure.