‘Full-time counsellors, must in schools’

The suicide of a Class 12 student, unable to take the pressure of the board exams, once again puts the spotlight on teenage angst and depression and how miserably the ecosystem — parents, teachers, society — are failing to support children in difficult times. Where indeed is the friend, philosopher, guide to whom they can turn? 

“Today’s teenagers are going through a tough time in an increasingly consumeristic world,” said KR Maalathi, educationalist. “Even the situation at home is not very conducive. With single parent households on the rise, broken families, the stress of the education system and young adults getting into relationships at a much younger age, a good guide and counsellor is the need of the hour.”  

School is the other place, apart from home, where a child spends a lot of time. Unfortunately, many schools do not know how to deal with a teenage student going through depression. Most schools with 3000-plus students do not have an in-house counsellor. A staff member with a school said, “We have teachers with 20 years of experience who deal with trouble-making students. If we notice a child behaving unusually, our staff talks to them and we also inform the parents. We do not recommend medical help as it will magnify the problem.” 

Experts said that this approach — sweeping mental health issues under the carpet — is the most damning. Maalathi bemoaned the fact that most school promoters and educators think that if a child is seeing a counsellor there must be something very wrong with him or her. “They don’t realise that neither they nor their teachers are specialists in dealing with children who may need some psychological intervention. So finally, the child is made miserable both by parents and teachers. It’s high time that our schools realise the importance of appointing full time counsellors.” 

Adolescence, by itself, is a notoriously confused and inexplicable period, but today’s times are even harder to negotiate for a young adult, what with the irrationally high levels of competition, too few seats in colleges of one’s choice and everyone joining the rat race, one’s own parents included. The child is worried, most of the time, about disappointing the parents. “Parents often put a lot of pressure on their child to perform well in school. They must understand what the child is going through. They have a mountain of expectations from the child and they are in denial about the child’s mental state. They are more focussed on the scores rather than their child’s mental well-being,” said psychologist Mini Rao. 

Not all youngsters can cope with this, and Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, Founder Trustee of Sneha, a suicide prevention centre, pointed out that as a result, “The number of calls we receive increases during the exams, more so, during the time of the announcement of the results. Last year, we received 50-60 calls a day when the board exam results were announced.” 

What drives youngsters into such helplessness? Is there not something radically wrong in their upbringing that their innate self-esteem and problem solving ability diminish because of a set of tests that say very little about a person’s individual strengths or talents? “Depression is mostly hereditary, and also environmental. It could be triggered by a tragic event in a teen’s life or a heart break, which is a common reason among teenagers. They need their parents’ support the most around this time,” said Mini Rao. They need to know it isn’t the end of the world.