Students Lives Matters

Diary of a young lawyer...
5 min readOct 31, 2021

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You may have heard this many times that the education system is meant to bring enlightenment. Education leads to becoming a good human being and citizen which eventually lead the nation towards development.

But… Our Education system is so messed up. In the race of chasing grades the purpose of education has been wiped out. The first and foremost problem in our system is that Students are being pressurized from all sides.

Most Parents are goal-setters for their children they impose their own will on children. “Hamara Beta Doctor Banega” in fact, Parents overburden their children with higher expectations.

In our Society students are judged by their grades and degrees. And in case anyone fails in his/her exams people start humiliating them and taunting them.

In my case, when I failed my medical college entry test every second person in my surrounding became a mathematician and started reminding me how much money my parents wasted on my education. The same is happening with every failed University-College aspirant.

Moreover, Student-Teacher Grudges are also one of the major problems in our educational system. In many cases, students are failed by the teacher(s) just because of their “grudges”. The majority of the time teachers hold grudges over little things.

That’s why students are afraid to speak up in class or speak up for their genuine issues in institutions because of fear of being singled out by teacher(s) and being penalized by the administration.

Precisely, Students careers will be at stake if they speak up for their genuine issues. And if someone dares to speak up, then from failing aka “supply” to penalizing by administration every method will be used to teach him/her “lesson”.

Under these circumstances, the Majority of students are studying with examination stress and fear of failure. And constant verbal, physical and psychological abuse by parents and teachers leads Students to feelings of hopelessness and being worthless.

As consequence students are affected by depression and mental health issues. Hence, the suicide rate is constantly rising among students. It is an established fact that along with mental health issues Suicide is a social and psychological issue as well.

Every year hundreds of students attempt and many of them commit suicide. A few years back four students (two girls and two boys) from different areas of Chitral committed suicide one after another because in the intermediate results they were not being able to achieve the “Expected” grades.

A student named Fareed Ahmed was also one of them who killed himself even though he obtained 81%marks.

Similarly, Nargis from Sahara Medical College took her life due to the pressure of supplementary exams.

And recently, a female student from UMT Lahore committed suicide because she was tense due to physical exam pressure.

As mentioned above Student-Teacher Grudges are also the main reason for the loss of innocent lives.

In case you forget let me remind you:

Saqib Hakro student of electrical engineering at Bahria University Islamabad committed suicide because the teacher(s) deliberately and repeatedly failed him in exams due to “grudges”.

Remember Nadia Ashraf? She committed suicide because of harassment by her thesis supervisor and due to him, she was unable to complete her PhD.

Similarly, Usman Javed of Rehbar Medical College took his life because of constant bad terms with Administration.

And recently Tariq Shahani Final year student of GMMMC committed suicide because allegedly he was singled out in the final exam and was the only one to fail the exam.

There are many more stories in our surrounding community which go unreported. It is going on like a cycle, students commit Suicide, the news goes viral, the public condemn, demands justice, it trends for some time then everyone forgets about it and move on till the next such case to repeat the same cycle.

Uncles at WhatsApp and Facebook will share “motivational posts” like Albert Einstein didn’t speak until age four and didn’t read until age seven. He was labelled “slow” and “mentally handicapped” by teachers. And Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs all are dropped out of college and yet successful in their fields. Blah, blah, blah!

But when it comes to their own children they will not give them such motivation or reduce their stress instead of this they will set bar of expectations so high.

How many Suicide cases will be enough for Parents, Society, Educational Institutions and Legislatures to address this issue and take serious action?

Instead of Treatment of Mental Health Patients are being punished. Suicide and attempted suicide are considered criminal offences under Section 325 of the Pakistan Penal Code which are punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or fine of up to PKR 10,000, or both.

In 2017 Senator Karim Ahmed Khawaja of PPP moved an amendment bill to decriminalize suicide. Senate and Council of Islamic Ideology adopted it unanimously but despite this, it was not passed by the National Assembly.

In a country where ‘Physical Torture’ is not criminalized yet “mental health policy” is too much to ask for.

It is pertinent to mention that After Independence Pakistan continued with the Lunacy Act 1912 of British India. Which focused on detention more than treatment.

Lunacy Act of 1912 was replaced by the Mental Health Ordinance of 2001. And After the 18th Amendment Health is a provincial subject. So Sindh Assembly took the lead and passed the Mental Health Act in 2013. Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have also passed laws in 2014 and 2017 respectively to address Mental Health issues. But there is a lack of proper implementation and execution.

So, it’s high time to identify the flaws in our education system. Parents, Educational Institutions, Society and Government should wake up and address the mental health issues of Students.

Therefore, Government should accelerate effective legislation and Develop reforms.

Likewise, Parents should give freedom of choice to their children. From setting their own goals to pursuing their own dreams students should be independent. Parents need to tell their children that failing an exam is not the end of the world.

Similarly, Teachers should be trained to treat students like they should be treated.

Moreover, Student unions are also need of time which makes sure that students’ voices are heard with regards to their issues.

Last but not least psychological services and counselling facilities must be provided to every student in every Educational Institution whether it is a primary, secondary, or higher educational institution.

Precisely, Parents, Educational Institutions, Society and Government should do all possible things to get rid of Mental Health Issues in Students.

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Diary of a young lawyer...

I'm Abdul Qadeer, Lawyer by day and a writer by night. My talent is words. I am an aspiring writer with a huge passion for writing and researching.