Okay, today we have decided to have a tour down memory lane; our destination is our school days. Now, I know many of you are thinking about your school friends, your favourite teacher, or your first love (it all starts in school, right?). But let’s think about all the all-nighters we had to pull before the exams, the fear was so real. Well, speaking about examinations, the NCERT survey on mental health revealed that female students are more anxious and feel more responsibility to perform well in their exams. This is giving us nostalgia and it’s not good.
As we all know, October 10 is marked as World Mental Health Day and it is an international day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. For the unversed, it was first celebrated in the year 1992 at the initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health. But as we are celebrating this important day today, the findings of this mental health survey are quite shocking but we are not surprised at all. A recent mental health survey which was conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) revealed that female students have a slightly higher level of anxiety than male students and they also feel more responsibility to do well in exams. If our education system wants students to memorise the whole textbook, this is bound to happen.
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On the other hand, the survey also mentioned that male students felt more pressure to perform.
The NCERT mental health survey was aimed at gauging the status of mental health and well-being of school students from Class 6 to 12. The survey had a sample size of 1,88,220 girls and 1,90,944 boys. Only 11 students who identified themselves as transgender persons were part of the mental health survey.
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Well, if we want to prioritise the mental health of school students, then we need to take proper action for it.