Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh has seen a consistent number of students committing suicide after the announcement of results of board examination for classes 10 and 12th. In 2016, this prompted the Chief Minister of the state, Shivraj Singh Chouhan to form a committee in the Vidhan Sabha to look for solutions to this problem. After gathering data from a variety of sources such as psychologists, educationists, media persons, teachers, coaching class operators, the committee submitted its report in March 2017.
The report recommended some drastic changes like mandatory counseling of students at each and every academic level, appointing of male and female counselors in each school, prevention of the assignment of any other work other than teaching the teachers, appointing a teacher guardian for each group of 30 to 35 students, compulsory participation by the students in extra-curricular activities, making Yoga and meditation a separate mandatory subject for schools, awarding extra points to students excelling in such activities, providing coaching class operators with a law to regulate their practices, as well as providing teachers with the necessary training in student psychology.
Unfortunately, six years later, these suggestions have been implemented partially or have not been implemented at all. Some principals have voluntarily chosen to follow a couple of suggestions. Meanwhile, the MPBSE Helpline has received almost 5000 calls from students since announcement of class 10th and 12th results on Thursday, the majority of which dealt with related questions and issues.
Though the Rajya Shiksha Kendra spokesman Amitabh Anuragi claims that these recommendations were implemented to some degree, with schemes such as Anugoonj and Ruk Jana Nahi aimed at curbing student suicides, there is still a need to make the arbitrary implementation of such suggestions, mandatory for the welfare of students. It is also crucial to ensure that the provided solutions are delivered by the authorities effectively, without any bias.
