The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Helpline abuzz with the stressed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Helpline abuzz with the stressed

Vani Doraisamy

HELP AT HAND: A volunteer from SNEHA attends to a student caller on Saturday. — Photo: S. Thanthoni

CHENNAI: The telephones are ringing off the hook at the 24-hour distress helpline at the voluntary organisation Sneha here. Before and after the results of the Plus Two examination were announced on May 18, stressed-out students have kept the line busy. The callers have included not just students who failed in the examinations, even those who could not score the high marks they had been expecting. And there were more boys calling up than girls.

In just four days, 40 trained volunteers provided psycho-emotional counselling to 22 over the telephone and six who turned up in person. Among them were students who had scored as high as 88 per cent but had wanted to score 90 per cent or more. Some had despaired at low marks in the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE).

"At least 60 per cent of our callers said they had thought of committing suicide. In some cases, the families had been more distressed, aggravating the pressure on the student," said P.V. Sankaranarayanan, Director, Sneha (044-28352345).

As per National Crime Record Bureau statistics, on an average 200 students in the 15-29 age group committed suicide every year in Tamil Nadu alone after failing in the examinations. The all-India figure touched 2,000. Two such instances were reported from Chennai in the past week. On Tuesday, Iniyan Raj of Royapettah committed suicide as his TNPCEE score was low. On Friday, S Gurubabu of Chromepet took his own life after he failed the Plus Two examinations.

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Jayanthini recalls the case of a girl who had developed extreme traumatisation-anxiety symptoms such as vomitting and stomach-ache as her Plus Two examinations approached. She was an academic topper but the thought that she could lose out made her want to skip the examinations. Following counselling, she took the examinations — and did creditably. For academicians, the "extreme stress'' put on notional success made it impossible for students to accept failure as a normal part of schooling.

Said S.S. Rajagopalan, a senior educationist: "Every year, after the examination results are announced, the toppers walk away with all the praise while there is no analysis of why some students performed poorly. Despite the Yashpal Committee's recommendations nearly a decade back, very little has been done to reduce the various academic-induced burdens on our students. It is also regrettable that schools which place such a premium on good performance fail to offer emotional support to the poor performers."

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