Students facing too much pressure (an extract of Natalie Wang article, ST, 16/7, pD10)

An interesting read of the following article which evokes much thoughts about modern day education here in Singapore. For our reflection.

Commentary by Wang, a second-year student at ACJC, on the reports of three incidents of student suicides opined that their performances in school, which sometimes defined a student’s self-worth, could be the cause of their suicides.

She felt that in addition to scoring well, students had to be leaders, excel in their co-curricular activities and still be pro-active and help the community. Parents that conditioned their children from a young age to think that getting good grades was the most important thing in the world also caused them to feel angry or depressed when they did not do well.

Wang also noted that although many teachers had said that the foremost job of a student was to study, she felt that being human beings should come first as students could not stop the desire to socialise and have fun. Wang concluded that society needed to be more empathetic and not quickly dismiss teens showing symptoms of depression as ‘emotional’ and write them off as a joke.