Kota student suicides: High pressure culture among students points towards some serious problems with India's education system
student suicides to a record 23 in coaching hub Kota, has set off alarm bells in poll-bound Rajasthan bringing all coaching centre-level tests to a halt for two months. The growing number of suicides at this north Indian coaching hub, which draws over two lakh students annually to help them prepare for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admissions to top engineering and medicine colleges, is a reflection of the immense stress that students have to undergo to make it to the top institutes, which are far fewer than desired.
This demand-supply imbalance points to a larger commentary on the state of India's education system.
The fact that this coaching city has seen student suicides rising from 15 last year to 23 this year, shows that there are tectonic challenges in our education system. Infact, this Kota-like high pressure culture is very much part of a 'national problem'.
The 2021 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report said that 864 people below 18 years died by suicide in 2021 due to 'failure in examinations', which is 1% of the total suicides in the country.
The Union Ministry of Education had told Parliament this year that 61 student suicides were recorded across top educational institutes — IITs, NITs and IIMs — since 2018 and more than half were in the IITs.
COACHING CULTURE
The 'excessive exam coaching' is a natural corollary to the desire of students to make it to the most prestigious institutes and follow the most-sought-after professions in the country — engineering and medicine. Parental pressure is a key factor as many parents still feel that the IITs/NITs/medical schools alone can ensure a secure future for their child.
