Haryana: 65 per cent of students in schools not mentally at ease, says state council survey

All is not well in the Haryana education system, with 65 per cent of students not being mentally at ease inside government-run educational institutions.

This is according to a survey conducted by the State Council of Education and Research and Training (SCERT), Haryana. The SCERT conducted the survey seeking responses from 33,460 students from classes 9 to 12 in all of the state's 23 districts.

The survey report expressed dissatisfaction with the physical growth of 18 per cent of students and noted that 13 per cent of students were often offered drugs by fellow students while 6.25 per cent of students, both male and female, had experienced sexually assault.

The SCERT survey divided its set of questions into four categories. In the first category, the council asked 14 questions related to students' family members, the level of education, and food.

In second segment, the council posed 10 questions related to health while 13 questions were asked in the third segment, which pertained to drugs and alcoholic consumption. The final section had 19 questions related to physical complications, curiosity and sexual abuse.

"It appeared during the survey that students are hesitant to reveal their own thinking, approach and especially giving the answers of sexual abuse and drugs related questions," Brahma Prakash, a specialist in the SCERT population wing, said.

"These are basically the problem or complication (sic) generated among teenage students in continuous process and hence SCERT has decided to prepare district wise report (sic) and will upload it on the portal so that necessary action would take up by competent authorities for proper and healthy growth of students in future," he further said.

DRUG USE

The survey report threw up a disturbing fact regarding the students' drugs and alcohol habits. 7.5 per cent of students admitted to having taken drugs in the past with some saying that their drug use is regular.

Haryana's culture of hookah consumption found a mention in the survey with 52 per cent of the students saying that their family members take drugs, smoke cigarettes, consume alcohol or use hookah.

The survey report also said that 59.20 per cent students have personal issues with their fellow students leading to mental disturbances, 24.93 per cent face issues with parents while a miniscule 2.80 per cent have problems with their teachers or other faculty.

STRESS

Of the 65 per cent students who admitted to experiencing stress, nearly two-thirds said that they knew what stress was.

Of the subset, 61.23 per cent students said they were stressed due to examinations, 34.57 per cent blamed it on family problems while 7.94 per cent said they were stressed because of other factors.

When asked what they did while stressed, 9.82 per cent of students said yoga helped and 55.30 per cent said they listened to music. 25.30 per cent of student said they read literature to combat stress while 29 per cent said they played games. Less than one per cent of students said they either smoked or consumed alcohol to beat stress.

"We have obtained very important information about students of our state in a survey conducted by population wing of SCERT. We have decided to take necessary action for betterment of students," said Dr Kiranmayi, director of SCERT.

"We also will encourage teachers to make healthy contacts with students so that latter would not hesitate to share their daily problems. The teachers will also undergo training about adolescence," she added.