Students at corporate educational institutions, like Sri Chaitanya and Narayana, have been bearing a lot — from pressure to score good marks, verbal abuse, physical assault, bad food, caste discrimination and more. Such is the fate of students who decide to pursue their academics at corporate educational institutions, stated a report in The New Indian Express.
The daily life of students studying at corporate educational institutions is such, full of scary incidents which they don't complain about fearing consequences. Take for example, N Sathwik, the student of Sri Chaitanya Institute in Narsingi who died by suicide earlier this week. One of the former students, who studied between 2018-2020, told The New Indian Express, "I was once beaten for wearing shorts in classes during summers. The principal Krishna Reddy has a bamboo stick with which he mercilessly beats students, especially during study hours." B Surendar, who had opted for the combination Mathematics-Physics-Chemistry (MPC), added that teachers don't have subject expertise in some cases. "If asked any doubt, the teachers and the principal used to target us. Once a teacher even humiliated students from the Dalit community saying that they don't need to study well and they can get admission on the basis of reservation," Surendar said.
The problem of plenty
The situation is no different in other corporate institutions. "We were not being beaten up in the college. But there were too many students in one class. We never understood what teachers used to teach. Students sitting on the last bench could not even hear," said another former student of Narayana College in Lingampally.
The students also informed how these corporate institutions segregate them into groups depending on how they fare in tests. Only those students who scored well could prepare for JEE, others were asked to set their eyes on the intermediate public examination (IPE).
It has been informed that Sathwik was a bright student and after the pre-final IPE in college, he approached the principal to point out that his marks were miscalculated because of which, he was shifted to the lower batch. It was since then that the principal started harassing him in public. "When I was studying in the college, one of my classmates, Sanjeev Kumar from Nizamabad also committed suicide by hanging himself in the hostel room. We were sent to our homes for four days after the incident. They told us not to speak up about the incident," another ex-student from the same 2018 batch said.
Reaching out to help
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Dr Daljeet Kaur, Consultant Psychiatrist at Continental Hospitals in Telangana said that students from such academic institutions often come for consultation. "When we have high-performing students working really hard towards their goals, they not only set high expectations for themselves but are also under constant peer pressure and pressure from their teachers and parents. Around this time, they would thrive only if they have a supportive environment," she said.
Dr Kaur suggested that if a student has been through performance-based discrimination to humiliation, teachers and staff members need to be trained to be empathetic. Stress can be productive in some amounts, but if it is affecting the students on a daily basis, they should confide in their family or friends. "Suicides are not always due to depression, they can be due to impulsive acts where the student didn't understand how to cope at that particular time. Academic institutions need to have stress management sessions and a counsellor or at least having a psychologically minded coordinator at college or hostel that the student can approach," Dr Kaur said.
Did you know?
- More than 3,600 students died by suicides in the State from 2014-2021, the data collected National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows
- As many as 567 students, highest in all these years, have ended their lives in 2021 alone
