Education pressure cookers and contempt for ‘failures’

Students can crumble under pressure excerted by parents and teachers

This is compassion fatigue. But this societal pressure now starts at school itself, so that the pressure put on A/L students to pass the exam brilliantly amounts to a different kind of ‘rag.’ 

Winner takes everything and loser takes nothing? This seems to be the heartfelt conviction, if not the motto of many Sri Lankans. There is no place for losers in a country where so many are struggling to make ends meet.

There can be many definitions of a loser. The cases which prompted this column are not my idea of what constitutes a loser. Before we call people who opt out of a race or a competitive situation losers, we need to scrutinise their cases.

Speaking of the suicide of an A’ Level female student who, it is alleged, was pushed too hard by her peers at school, I was startled by the reaction of two young men – they blamed her for not being able to handle the pressure.

That reminded me of another student suicide – Charith Dilshan, an undergraduate of Sabaragamuwa University, who committed suicide in May due to intense pressure and humiliation caused by raggers. We recall an earlier suicide at the same university; female undergrad Amali Chathurika. 

These cases are mentioned now because, when discussing their deaths,  I got the same reaction from several people – they took their own lives because they couldn’t stand the pressure. This is what campus raggers say when a new student drops out or commits suicide. They are weak and can’t handle pressure.

It struck me as an accusation. This is a society which admires physical toughness. People’s heroes – for example film stars, cricketers, soldiers – fit that mould. Mental toughness is not mentioned, however. That is the other side of the coin people easily forget, because muscle and physical prowess is easier to spot than the mental effort.

What people also forget is that heroes can and do crack. But such ‘negative’ stories are easily forgotten. 

Sri Lankan society has been under pressure from Day One (if we start counting from independence). The so-called ‘golden age’ older people speak of, from the 1950s to the 60s, saw a Hartal, communal riots, an attempted coup, countless strikes, floods, droughts, ragging violence and civil war.

According to some reports, at least 2000 students drop out of university each year. The main cause is given as ragging.

Whether it’s ragging or exams, the end result is mental pressure.

This is a society suffering from compassion fatigue. It is generally assumed that this condition resulted from our bloody civil war and insurrections. But I think it was there long before that. If not, the vicious cases of ragging reported from our institutions of higher learning starting from the 1960s cannot be explained.

Approximately 60-63% of our Advance Level candidates are eligible to enter university. This means around 160,000 to 170,000 students. But, only 43,000-44,000 gain admission due to limited capacity.

Around 2000 drop out each year due to ragging. In other words, raggers have an avowed goal of reducing the actual number of entrants even further.

Today, a basic degree is necessary for most white-collar jobs if one thinks in terms of a career and job advancement. Thus, the raggers are enhancing their chances in the job market while reducing that of the new entrants.

This is compassion fatigue. But this societal pressure now starts at school itself, so that the pressure put on A/L students to pass the exam brilliantly amounts to a different kind of ‘rag.’ 

Both parents and teachers are guilty of this. Those parents who do not have the capacity to send their children to foreign universities – through their earnings, savings, loans or mortgages – see state universities as their only hope. 

We can see the kind of pressure students face, starting from the Grade 5 scholarship exam to A Levels. As one parent put it, there is really no time for children to be children – or for vital outdoor activities and exercise, the primary reason for increasing bad health at school going age.

But, getting back to that societal view on ‘quitters’ (suicide being an extreme form of quitting), there is only contempt for them, no sympathy and no mercy. They are ‘weak.’

People want success stories, at any price. They want to forget the rest. This yearning, coming from a country classified as a failed state after struggling for decades with changes of government, rebellion, civil war and finally economic meltdown – is hardly surprising. ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ sang Billy Ocean in 1985 for the film ‘Jewel of the Nile.’ But real life is different from Hollywood fantasies. The so-called tough crack up, too. But people see it differently – when celebrities (they wouldn’t have reached the top if they aren’t tough) break down, the aura of success still lingers about them. 

It’s the overworked student or office worker who cracks up after being pushed beyond the edge that is beneath everyone’s contempt.