The increasing rate of suicides in india has piqued me to dig deep into the reason why it is happening , and the needle of suspicion invariably points to the psychology of indian parents and our education and value system. Why is there so little scope in india for sports, music, arts? Why can’t we choose the way we want to live? Why are there so many obligations? Are books everything?
It is not hidden that indian parents expect their children to become doctors, engineers, CA’s or ,to go the farthest, a cricketer. It is inculcated in us from our childhood that if we do not study at school or get high grades then we cannot do anything in life. A child with good grades is often loved more than the other with intermediate bookish dexterity. Too much pressure is put on students, who are naïve and yet to fathom the ways of life. Obviously not all parents are same, but mass psychology of parents suggests that they do expect their child to excel in academics, they just don’t realize that may be the grapes are hung too high for their children and they can crumble matching their parent’s expectations. A Stanford sociologist studied more than ten thousand students found that indian students spent 40 percent more time doing homework than students from European or other western countries. While most American parents are willing to accept child’s weak areas and emphasize on their strengths, for indian parents, if you are not doing well, the answer will be to increase your working hours.
On the contrary, parents can put all the blame on indian government’s inability to provide sufficient scope in domains other than academics. In india, cricket is only the plausible sport where one can contemplate a career, but what if somebody has interest in soccer, basketball, nascar or motoGP, or somebody who has a flair for music, are there enough music academies in every city? The big educational institutes more than welcome the bookworms, students with great academic records and an IQ far greater than being called average. Even the most coveted management institutes of india want people only with high or rather ostentatious grades even in their school level examinations, isn’t it ridiculous, does working hard in your school level exams determine whether you will be a good manager or not? With education system like this, students, whether or not interested, set themselves to endeavor in academia and often found themselves in a wreckful state, no doubt you cannot excel in something you are not made for. The single most important contribution that schooling and primary education can make to a child’s development is to help students toward a field where their talents best suit them, where they will be satisfied and competent. Indian education system should spend less time in ranking children and more time in helping them to identify their fortes, and interest, providing them information and skills to reach their self-made goals.