Beyond the marks: Why India’s education system is failing the children

The dreaded board exam results of classes 10 and 12 were declared in India this week. Once again, students and parents were either elated or deeply disappointed with the outcome, as if it were life and death. Unfortunately in some cases, exam stress made it just that. A 17-year-old boy allegedly died by suicide by jumping from the 15th floor of his apartment building in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of Delhi. Media reports say he was upset because he scored 75 percent, which in the twisted world of our education system is akin to failure.

On the other hand, in Aligarh, an education officer celebrated his son’s 60 percent marks on the platform ‘X’, with a heartwarming message. He said “life is a test of patience, not knowledge. Children should be supported.”

Closer home, my brilliant nephew was a tad disappointed that he scored 86 per cent, a fantastic score by any account. He was however keen to hit 90. I have seen many students like him struggle to reach impossible numbers, unhappy they scored 94 percent instead of 95. As this generation struggles with overburdened expectations and mental health issues, counsellors have been urging parents not to share the scores of their children on social media or WhatsApp. It only leads to unfair comparisons and adds to the stress.

What makes the fuss over the board exams even more astonishing is that most universities no longer require board marks as the main criteria for admissions. All major universities have their own entrance tests. And yet, we put our children through hell, especially in class 12. Why must this continue?

The data is troubling. We don’t just put unrealistic pressure on our children in school, but also when they reach college. The top rung IITs have seen this first hand with disturbing reports of suicides going up in recent years. According to a report published by the IC3 Institute last year, there has been alarming increase in student suicides with a 4 per cent annual increase in student suicides, double the national rate of 2 per cent. The IC3 is a voluntary organisation that works with schools around the world.

Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows the number of student suicides rising from 6,654 in 2013 to 13,044 in 2022.

India’s top institutions that have been applauded for their academic excellence have instead become centres of a high pressure environment, where many young men and women are finding it hard to cope. The blame falls on our society as a whole - a society that celebrates numbers and puts a disproportionate emphasis on exams. Teachers and schools are to blame as well. Schools want to brag about how many of their kids got into top colleges based on their marks. A real education, which should be about learning and developing a child’s personality, is missing. They are like robots, mugging up their curriculum, aiming for the impossible 98 per cent score, and then crying why they didn’t score 100.

While the government has now realised the mental health crisis that young people in India face, their efforts at setting up helplines are not going far enough. A report by UNICEF found that only about 40 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 24 are comfortable seeking mental health support. There is still a stigma attached to these issues, one that needs to be dealt with more firmly. Unfortunately most of our schools and colleges are poorly equipped to deal with this, lacking even basic counselling.

The reasons for student distress are much more complex in India. It is a broken education system coupled with an economy that does not have good quality jobs for young people, a society still badly fragmented on caste lines and familial expectations regarding employment and marriage. That is why even those who do make it to their dream institutions like the IITs find themselves stressed, depressed and seemingly alone. Those from economically underprivileged backgrounds are under even more pressure to excel.

Until we make systemic changes and societal ones, our children will continue to face huge burdens. The onus is on us.