Understanding students in Kota: Survey on the cards

Jaipur: The Kota district administration has decided to hold a first-of-its-kind mammoth exercise in the form of a survey on 1.5 lakh students enrolled in coaching institutes.
The move is intended to study the mindset of students enrolled in these institutes. It is primarily de signed to find out whether students are here willingly or unwillingly with the larger aim of putting an end to suicides and to minimize the mental pressure of students.
The proposal came from the district collector, Ravi Kumar Surpur, in a review meeting held on Sunday with representatives from coaching institutes, hostel and mess owners and transporters along with IG of Kota.
The coaching institutes were asked to follow the directive of carrying out a survey compulsorily on all students class VIII onward, who are enrolled with various coaching institutes, in complete anonymity. The district administration is framing a questionnaire for the survey and is likely to come out with the form in coming days.
Kota's district collector and brain behind the survey shared some questions which they will be asking the students. The questions include aspects like economic status of the family, profession of family members, interests of students in engineering, physical or mental abuse, if any, by parents, know how of alternate career options, what they miss in Kota, and the like. Some objective-type questions will also be listed to find out health hazards and change in behavioural pattern. “Students don't have to write their names on the survey paper. It will be completely anonymous. These questions are designed keeping in the mind the reasons students have stated in the suicide letters and on the what counsellors say,“ said Surpur. He further shared that once the data is collected, they will analyze it through a specially created software to find out the mental state of students in different categories, patterns and trends. “The most important part will be after studying the pattern and trends, we will make interventions aiming to bring an institutional change in the mindset of parents and students,“ said Surpur.