Sometimes while teaching and preparing kids, parents intentionally or unintentionally might take things too far. The amount of stress that children face these days as they strive to manage school, homework, extracurricular activities, social lives, sleep, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is being referred to as a health epidemic (Palmer, 2005). And on top of that the stress of scoring good just adds on it too.
Examples like – Sharmaji ka beta scored 92%, look at it, is very common in Indian Households. Parents don’t realize the stress and anxiety they pass on to their kids by comparing them to others, and putting them under immense pressure for scoring well.
Did you know?
“61 percent of students, say they face a lot of pressure to get good grades”
Students are obsessing over getting the grades they are expected to get in order to please those who push them, and as a result, they are losing sleep and foregoing other aspects of their lives that are important to them, such as time with friends and family and participation in activities they enjoy.
In India parents lose the focus of their child’s overall development and place their whole focus on getting 90% or more. Furthermore the impact of academic pressure leads to mental health issues among students-
- Poor quality of life
- Overall health and well-being are deteriorating
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Sleep deprivation which leads to inadequate coping mechanisms
- Overall health and well being affected
- High levels of stress and burnout lead to lower academic success
Academic parental pressure will only cause children to be concerned. When they receive a high grade on an exam, they will be concerned about the next one or the possibility that someone else will receive a greater grade. If a child’s grade isn’t the best, he or she will believe that they aren’t good enough.
Even the most gifted youngsters will struggle to perform if they are paralysed by fear.
Stress and the thought that they aren’t as good as they could be can eventually lead to poor behavior. When children are under a lot of pressure, they will try everything to earn good grades like cheating, usage of drugs and so on.
Overall Intelligence and smartness is needed for cracking a job interview , clearing competitive exams for getting into IIT IIMs IAS etc. One needs to be an all rounder the grades just won’t suffice for it. Thus a more importance to the overall development of the kid should be focused on rather than just good grades.
Furthermore, the Indian Education system has made it even more difficult for students to release the pressure, as it is textbook oriented and leaves zero to no room for creativity and other activities, and the other added pressure from teachers is way too much to handle.
A thing or 2 to learn from the Singapore education system- Singapore’s education system has been consistently ranked as one of the highest in the world, The school system in Singapore tries to bring forth the best in each child by preparing them with –
- Learn by doing
- Learn about the real world
- Learn by life
And parents can bring out the best in their children. Instead of focusing on grades, you should emphasise the importance of learning new things. Children should be eager to learn new things, especially if they are interested in a certain academic field. Prioritise the acquisition of knowledge rather than the manner in which progress is measured. And then see how children excel in all the fields.