Date: 19/04/2023

Relevance: GS-2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education, Human Resources; Stress Management.

Key Phrases: Higher Education, Stress Management, Poor Governance, Leadership Qualities, National Education Policy, Private and Public Sector, Psychological counseling.

Context:

• During the 2018-23 quinquennial, there were as many as 61 students fading away including 33 from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), 24 from the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and 4 from the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
• In the 2014-21 septennial, there were 122 cases in various higher education institutions.
  • In both cohorts, most students were from the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Castes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
  • Therefore, there is a strong need to address these issues in a comprehensive and effective manner.

Key Highlights:

• India's higher education system is the world's third-largest in terms of students, next to China and the United States.
• Education is a subject of Concurrent list in Indian Constitution.

Reason of Stress in Higher Education:

• Lack of Family Support :
  • Family support is dwindling as there are more nuclear families now with working parents who are unable to provide the kind of parenting and mentoring that joint families provide.
• Growing Individualism :
  • Individualism is all pervasive in society.
    • Consequently, early signs of emotional distress go unnoticed, unrecognized, and unaddressed.
• Lack of Attention from Institute’s Side :
  • Generally, institutions are in denial mode and prefer to hush things up with the expectation that the situation will be dealt with by the parents.
    • Students in emotional distress have at times been advised to spend time with their families.
• Lack of Communication in hectic schedule :
  • In institutions of higher education the system is such that there is hardly any free and fair communication between students, their seniors, teachers, and the administration.
  • Classroom interactions are confined to academics, with recurrent exhortations to students to be committed, dedicated and hard working, adding to the stress emotionally distressed students are already under.
  • Teachers may hardly have the time, the inclination or even the expertise to notice and address any disturbing traits among their students.
    • Consequently, students are deprived of much-needed preventive measures.
  • It is only when tragedy occurs that actions are triggered — an inquiry and then a prescription of remedial and preventive measures.

Reason for Suicide on Campus:

• Most campus suicides are attributed to academic pressure, family circumstances, personal reasons, different kinds of stress, financial distress, caste-based discrimination, and many different forms of harassment.
• Many of the sources of distress lie outside the purview of higher education institutions and have their genesis in the larger economic and societal contexts.
  • Therefore, each of these reasons must need to be addressed at their source by the government, society, institutions, parents, and families.

Measures taken for Stress Management:

• There are formal mechanisms in place to provide personal, cultural and psychological counseling to students.
  • Most of the IITs, NITs and the like have put in place online and offline mechanisms to access personal counseling and therapies in a confidential manner.
• Apps such as Dost, Saathi, and Mitr have also been launched to access their services anonymously.
• Most of these institutions also organize awareness and sensitisation programmes for students.

Unaddressed Issues:

• Such counseling centres appear to be deficient on many counts.
  • The onus is on students ‘in need’ to seek help — it is they who must seek an appointment.
  • Another drawback is that they work most of the time during office hours, and on working days, and are often unable to respond in a prompt manner.
• A few of them have arrangements with external agencies to provide psychological counseling.
  • The little information that is available suggests that they usually assign the task of counseling to faculty members and are yet to embrace the idea of professionally trained counselors.

Contrast with USA:

• In comparison, universities in the United States have dedicated counseling centres with a range of psychological services such as evaluation, counseling, consultation, and therapies - individual and group.
  • They are accredited by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services (IACS) and are manned by licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical therapists, mental health workers and social workers.
  • The counselor-to-student ratio is carefully established through a combination of empirical analysis and judgments of experienced counseling directors.
• In contrast, the psychological counseling services in Indian campuses are limited to providing some physical space in a corner of the institution, with a limited number of professionally trained psychologists and psychotherapists.

Need of Hour:

• The approval and accreditation process of institutions should also give equal importance to this aspect of student life as done for other areas such as floor area, faculty, books, and even computers.
  • There needs to be a well-oiled life support system for many students.
• Counseling and therapies as curative measures may be easy to strengthen and streamline.
  • There is a strong need to create conditions for forming an assimilative culture of cohesion and promoting respect for academic and socio-economic diversity.
  • Institutions must deter and curb all forms of discrimination.
• A few fringe elements on campus might be prejudicial about reservations in admission and differential fee policies.
• Therefore, a code of campus ethics, prescribing standards and protocols of what can and cannot be discussed even in informal social settings, should be evolved.

Conclusion:

• Sensitively nurtured and carefully harnessed social, economic, and cultural diversity on campuses add value to student life.
  • Therefore, an effective and comprehensive support system should be created, especially for the higher education system.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What are the reasons for stress in the Higher education system of India? Suggest some measures to solve those issues. (150 Words).