The need to re-imagine our education system

Ivividly remember reading the news about a 15-year-old boy from Muzaffargarh who set himself ablaze due to exam anxiety. He suffered 70 per cent burns and I couldn’t help but wonder what could’ve been done to stop him from reaching this stage.

Parents, education providers, our society - we all have a responsibility towards our children to help them through extreme academic stress and burnout. Instead of dismissing their feelings, we need to create a space within our education system where open conversations about mental health are possible and where students are equipped with tools and resources to manage their stress. You! takes a look at the experiences of different students that indicates the need to re-imagine our education system and include mental health education as an integral part of our schooling system.

Students speak out

According to Z* who studied the International Baccalaureate System, grades and self-worth were closely connected in school. “With every failing, it got harder and harder to care about both, the grades and myself.” About the role of teachers and teaching style, she said, “There were some teachers that had a more hands-on approach, leading by example which helped me understand the material better. Visuals alone, such as presentations, didn’t hold my attention, and audio-only teaching like lectures without any additional aids were even less effective for me.” When asked if she ever felt overwhelmed because of academics and how she coped, Z responded with heart-wrenching honesty, “All the time. I would just shut down after panicking for a few minutes, lie down and do nothing but sleep the day away. If I was asleep, I didn’t have to worry about it for a while.”

Commenting on the role of family and teachers in adding to her academic stress, she shared, “My father would always want good grades. If I did subpar, he’d be disappointed and then say I needed ‘more drive to do better’, and if I got a good grade, he would ask what the other kids got instead of focusing on mine. It was a lose-lose scenario. If I didn’t like the teacher, I wouldn’t do as well because in my head, it was a way to get back at them for all the stress they put me through. The vice versa is also true. If I liked them, I was a lot harder on myself to try and do better in class.”

When asked if there was any mental health support available in her school, Z disclosed, “No, the greatest support I ever got for mental health was from my homeroom teachers and they weren’t required to do it.”

What message would she give to our policy-makers and education providers? “Don’t overwhelm students with back-to-back testing, give them a break to process the materials. Also teach them practically. A lot of teachers just taught us cookie cutter methods and then never gave any real-world applications that let us understand the actual material we’re learning and why,” Z emphasised.

E* from the Cambridge System shares her thoughts, “Yes, I worked day and night in order to get good grades because my self-worth was based upon my academic excellence. The teaching styles were monotonous, teaching 30 kids in the same format with most of the effort done by students themselves, and there was no personal mentoring.”

She added, “There were times when I felt overwhelmed, and I coped up with that pressure by taking breaks or doing extra-curricular activities.”

For her, it was a matter of family honour. “It felt like I needed to impress everyone around me to get good grades to maintain a standard for my family,” she stated.

There weren’t any mental health facilities provided for the students at her school. “My message to our educational institutions is that deal kids individually with different teaching methods, in order to help them reach their full potential. Not every child is the same so, don’t pressurise your children till the point education starts affecting their mental health.”

M* from the Matriculation System opened up about her experience. “In school, grades were given much importance and teachers pegged the worth of each student with their grades, even having favourites. For me, it did not feel like a personal failure rather it felt like one must score better to have value in such a system. However, feelings of personal failure or success intensified during college where only high achievers were given admission and I was admitted on a quota basis.

“The teaching styles were redundant and only allowed for memorisation of the words rather than understanding how things worked which students had to explore on their own. Such methods would not allow them to achieve their full potential, in my opinion, as they taught words rather than providing an understanding of the subject itself,” she further explained.

“I felt overwhelmed at times when teachers constantly pushed the agenda of achieving high marks as the only aspect that can lead to success. While parents gave in to teachers’ messages. To cope, I started smoking.

“No mental support was available in school, a few teachers were compassionate enough to talk to students while the majority were fixated on marks. Only a few years after completion of my Matric, the concept of having an in-house psychologist came to my school,” she revealed.

“To education providers, I would say that find what interests your students and allow them to study that rather than cramming their heads with books that are 20 years old (English, Urdu, Islamiyat, Computer) or with words and formulas without giving the proper understanding of them (Physics, Chemistry, Math, Biology). Focus on the child’s tendency towards a specific field and groom them accordingly,” she elucidated.

MN* also from the Matric System reveals that her school divided students amongst sections based on grades. And being in the failure section was a nightmare. Getting good grades and staying in the best section was everything.

She also hinted towards physical abuse in schools, in addition to emotional abuse. “The teachers were cruel and didn’t care for individual growth. It was either get it done or fail and get a good beating for it,” she lamented.

Regarding stress, she shared, “The pressure was so intense that it took away my sleep and gave me stress pains in my backbone. Just got used to the pain and went along with it.” In her school, no mental health support was provided and in fact, it was discouraged.

In her message, she pleads, “Stop dividing your students and treating the weaker ones like they have a plague. Stop torturing the students physically and mentally. And stop assuming that only good grades in theory subjects are going to give us a good future. Treat your students like humans.”

K* studied Matriculation in Sciences. “In school, I perceived my grades as a direct reflection of my self-worth and personal value. There were a lot of expectations to perform well and this is why it felt like a failure when I didn’t perform well and live up to the expectations.

“The teaching methods focused more on rote memorisation, which didn’t support my learning and made it difficult to understand the concepts,” she highlighted.

Unfortunately, there was no mental support in her school either. “My teachers shouldn’t have differentiated so significantly between arts and science students. My own teachers advised me against associating with arts students even though we were in same classes previously,” she pointed out.

The themes forming through varied experiences of these students, ranging from emotional and physical abuse in schools, comparing your children to others, grades defining children’s self-worth, and defining success through standardised testing, are exactly what mental health experts advise us to avoid. Parents and education providers ought to re-evaluate how our attitudes and our systems are contributing to stress, which if left unaddressed, leads to a continuous state of exhaustion, causing academic burnout.

An experts view

The first step to address this problem is to be able to recognise it. According to a teacher from a top private school in Karachi, “We associate intelligence with grades when there are now so many different types of intelligences and our systems are not geared for out of the box thinkers. We test knowledge not skills. Education institutions are prioritising money and the pressure on students is so much that even those who are high performers get sucked into the tuition culture because of the fear of being left behind.”

Dr Asma Naheed, Psychologist, Special Needs Consultant, Philanthropist, and founder of ‘Hope & Light’ with 29 years of experience across the USA, UAE, and Pakistan, shares her views on the need of mental health education in our schooling system. “In these challenging times, our nation is facing a significant mental health crisis. Stress, depression, and anxiety have reached alarming levels, affecting even our youngest children. This situation demands immediate action,” she recommends.

“We must prioritise mental health education in our school system. Introducing school counselling and comprehensive mental health programmes is not just an option; it is a necessity. Our children need the tools and support to understand and manage their mental health effectively. Why it matters:

Children’s well-being: Providing mental health support in schools can help children manage stress and anxiety, improving their overall well-being.

Resilient future: Educating our youth on mental health equips them with the skills to navigate life’s challenges effectively, fostering a healthier, more resilient society.

Breaking the stigma: By making mental health a priority in education, we can reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues and encourage open conversations.

By equipping the next generation with the knowledge and skills to care for their mental well-being, we can foster a healthier, more resilient society. Let us come together to ensure that every child in Pakistan has access to the mental health education and support they need to thrive. By doing so, we invest in a brighter, healthier future for our nation,” she explained in detail.

Dr Asma has also started an initiative ‘SkillBridge’ designed to equip young students with essential soft skills for academic and career success. She says that in Pakistan, many young adults enter the workforce without the professional skills needed to thrive.

Her team has already started a pilot study with 300 students from three high schools in Rawlakot, Azad Kashmir. Over five weeks, students will participate in small group sessions during school hours, learning vital skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and professional etiquette. It is an effort that was made possible because of many supporters such as the Women Welfare Organization (WWO), as well as the local business community that offered 2-week internships in the health sector, hospitality industry, pharmaceuticals, and small businesses for these trained students.

*Names are withheld to protect the identity of individuals.

The writer is a LUMS alumna and a community social worker with special interest in public health, philosophy, and human rights. She can be reached at mariamk27@hotmail.com. and her X handle is @mariamibkhan