Improve mental health services for students
Reports indicate that 14 million Ugandans are affected by mental health challenges whereas fewer men have health-seeking behaviours than women and most suicides occur among people between the ages of 15 and 29 years. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Suicides especially in schools should call us all to action starting with deeply questioning what would lead a young soul with a promising future to choose to end their life.
The heartbreaking stories of students and other young people committing suicide usually get varying responses ranging from shock, anger, sorrow and fear. These are natural reactions to death in a community but they are not enough. Suicides especially in schools should call us all to action starting with deeply questioning what would lead a young soul with a promising future to choose to end their life.
Before someone takes their life, in most cases, there are factors that drive them to this. Of course there are outliers but in most cases, there’s a cause, a trigger. It could be the school, its rules and its pressures that trigger one to such an end. Let’s start at the beginning and at the most overlooked issue that can compound and end up in such an unfortunate situation. Many schools are in the race to get top grades because that assures them of more numbers as parents will be attracted to enroll their children due to the high performance.
To achieve this, many up the pressure on learners by keeping them in classrooms for long hours, subjecting them to rigorous cramming sessions. They are denied adequate sleep time given the early mornings that start as early as 3am for some and the late night lessons/ classes that go as late as 10pm. The school holiday is regarded by many schools as a time to have extra classes so there is no such thing as rest time for the students. Parents on the other hand are also pressurizing their children, demanding that they get top grades.
At the end of the day, the learners are facing pressure from within and without. There is little or no time for extracurricular activities, they have to deal with social issues given the budding stage that most of them are at. They have doubts, fears and frustrations but who cares about all this, all the adults want is good grades. Good grades is what we all want but what’s the point of it all if the other aspects of the life of a student are ignored?
Why do we expect them to function as wholesome humans beings when because of unresolved issues they in turn fail to cope with the high stress levels brought on by pressure to be the perfect student? How many schools hire professional mental health practitioners for their students? Some instead delegate this ever so important job to teachers who might not be trained in this field.
In fact some go on to breach confidentiality by discussing issues raised in the counselling sessions with students by divulging details of student’s lives to fellow teachers and sometimes students as well. Away from school, how many parents and guardians, if they can afford to , take their children for a visit to a professional therapist not because there is something visibly wrong but just to make sure that that front is covered? How many? Let’s do better.
