Exam Season equal dreadful nightmare: Time to Change for New India! Exam stress & anxiety affecting performing, costing young lives
Exam Season equal dreadful nightmare: Time to Change for New India!
Exam stress & anxiety affecting performing, costing young lives
Spring is one the most beautiful seasons, but not for school students as it is the time, they suffer from anxiety, examination fevers and stress. While it appears only natural, because for decades, examination means stress and tough times, is it possible that stress is negatively affecting learning?
While an appropriate amount of responsibility towards examination is helpful in focusing, stress and anxiety often result in poorer performance.
“Several researches have confirmed that test anxiety interferes with our working memory, which in turn leads to poorer exam performance. This is a vicious circle, but there are barely any attempts to break it, as parents, schools usually build up pressure,” Dr Pawan Rathi, consultant psychiatrist, said.
This is actually a major problem faced by every family across the country.
In NCERT’s mental health survey, when asked about various reasons for anxiety with respect to their academic life, little more than half students reported feeling anxious about studies, i.e. 55% students, of these 56% were girls and 52% were boys.
Further, it was found that students experienced more anxiety regarding studies as they shift from middle (49%) to secondary stage (58%).
Similarly, as expected, satisfaction with academic performance declined drastically as the students moved from the middle (39%) to the secondary stage (18%), as found in the survey.
Rising anxiety & stress affects concentration & performance negatively
The result of increasing anxiety and stress levels among students as they move in higher classes, affects their concentration levels and performance. “At the middle stage, around 26% responses were for lack of concentration and at the secondary stage 33% responses were given as reason for lagging behind in studies,” said the survey.
“I am in class 1 and honestly, examinations seem fun. We go to school, just write or say what we know and come home early. It’s easy, as we don’t have to sit and try to understand new concepts,” Manya Maheshwari, a student of class 1, said.
On the other hand, examination time becomes a dreadful nightmare as the same students reach higher classes.
Anay Sharma, a student of class 5, said, “I was born in US and examinations were usually fun and just a time before vacations, but here, it’s kind of normal for all of us to dread examinations. I am always anxious about the next examination and can barely sleep before the exam. It’s a tough life.”
Extremes: Over 2k commit suicide due to exam failure
National Crime Records Bureau’s latest reports revealed that across age groups, 2,095 people died by suicide after failure in examinations.
This number was highest in Maharashtra (378), followed by Madhya Pradesh (277) and Jharkhand (174). Karnataka (162) and Gujarat (155) also recorded high number of suicide deaths caused by failure in examinations.
Further, on a broader perspective over 13,000 students took their own lives in India in a year.
“We are a country with a young population being our prime power, but we will lose that strength if we fail to tweak our education system, psychology and find a way to build a positive learning environment. Failure is often seen as a big disappointment and not just that, students are expected to ace every examination, anything less is often unacceptable, forget appreciated!” UK Jha, CBSE coordinator, said.
//Possible ways to save lives, fix failure psychology
“I would suggest a way in which we can rate the performance of a child based on his/her performance and not comparing it with peers. This could help students grow and get the sense of progress, instead of compete,” Dr Smita Agrawal, consultant psychiatrist.
Exam stress & anxiety affecting performing, costing young lives
Spring is one the most beautiful seasons, but not for school students as it is the time, they suffer from anxiety, examination fevers and stress. While it appears only natural, because for decades, examination means stress and tough times, is it possible that stress is negatively affecting learning?
While an appropriate amount of responsibility towards examination is helpful in focusing, stress and anxiety often result in poorer performance.
“Several researches have confirmed that test anxiety interferes with our working memory, which in turn leads to poorer exam performance. This is a vicious circle, but there are barely any attempts to break it, as parents, schools usually build up pressure,” Dr Pawan Rathi, consultant psychiatrist, said.
This is actually a major problem faced by every family across the country.
In NCERT’s mental health survey, when asked about various reasons for anxiety with respect to their academic life, little more than half students reported feeling anxious about studies, i.e. 55% students, of these 56% were girls and 52% were boys.
Further, it was found that students experienced more anxiety regarding studies as they shift from middle (49%) to secondary stage (58%).
Similarly, as expected, satisfaction with academic performance declined drastically as the students moved from the middle (39%) to the secondary stage (18%), as found in the survey.
Rising anxiety & stress affects concentration & performance negatively
The result of increasing anxiety and stress levels among students as they move in higher classes, affects their concentration levels and performance. “At the middle stage, around 26% responses were for lack of concentration and at the secondary stage 33% responses were given as reason for lagging behind in studies,” said the survey.
“I am in class 1 and honestly, examinations seem fun. We go to school, just write or say what we know and come home early. It’s easy, as we don’t have to sit and try to understand new concepts,” Manya Maheshwari, a student of class 1, said.
On the other hand, examination time becomes a dreadful nightmare as the same students reach higher classes.
Anay Sharma, a student of class 5, said, “I was born in US and examinations were usually fun and just a time before vacations, but here, it’s kind of normal for all of us to dread examinations. I am always anxious about the next examination and can barely sleep before the exam. It’s a tough life.”
Extremes: Over 2k commit suicide due to exam failure
National Crime Records Bureau’s latest reports revealed that across age groups, 2,095 people died by suicide after failure in examinations.
This number was highest in Maharashtra (378), followed by Madhya Pradesh (277) and Jharkhand (174). Karnataka (162) and Gujarat (155) also recorded high number of suicide deaths caused by failure in examinations.
Further, on a broader perspective over 13,000 students took their own lives in India in a year.
“We are a country with a young population being our prime power, but we will lose that strength if we fail to tweak our education system, psychology and find a way to build a positive learning environment. Failure is often seen as a big disappointment and not just that, students are expected to ace every examination, anything less is often unacceptable, forget appreciated!” UK Jha, CBSE coordinator, said.
//Possible ways to save lives, fix failure psychology
“I would suggest a way in which we can rate the performance of a child based on his/her performance and not comparing it with peers. This could help students grow and get the sense of progress, instead of compete,” Dr Smita Agrawal, consultant psychiatrist.
“In my opinion, learning needs to reverse. We need to build a system, where students learn what they like and how they like, instead of us spoon feeding them. They should be given a choice to learn what they like,” Meenakshi Alwani, a parent, said.
“The best lessons we have learnt in our life come from failures, so we have to teach students that failure is acceptable and welcomed. However, their attempt must always be appreciated and they should be motivated with simple sentences like: this is difficult, but I know you can work it out,” Padma Shri Janak McGilligan Palta said.