Abigail Barretto
MARGAO: The ongoing pandemic has forced every institution in Goa to cope with the syllabus through virtual means, with no sign of an early resumption, the student community have to grapple with increased levels of stress and anxiety which is adversely affecting the overall development of the child during the formative years of their life.
While the advanced world has long realized the intensity of the issues these tender minds face, even after efforts to approach the students through online counselling the education department of Goa post a year and half of the pandemic refuse to accept it as a predicament for students.
The authorities have directed the schools and other educational institutions to initiate teaching online more than a year back but the other activities like sports, recreation, mingling with friends on the campus is unfeasible students feel today.
With lot of time at their disposal and lack of physical activity, young minds are finding it tough to deal with the circumstances arising out of this pandemic.
School closures were intended to keep students safe during the pandemic, but for many, it’s ushered in a different set of dangers: anxiety, depression and other serious mental health conditions with many of this view.
Parents are of the thought that their children need counselling, however services in that field are harder to deliver successfully since schools are closed.
While a minuscule of the counsellors, psychologists and social workers have been trying to assist students virtually since campuses closed, listening to their struggles and offering advice on how to navigate the complex difficulties they’re facing many other individuals and their families are left to fend for themselves.
“In this time of great recession we are dealing with job losses, loss of human lives, but now we’re facing widespread trauma.” informed a mother of two school going children.
Increasing numbers of students say they feel they might be falling behind academically, unstable network connection, lack of attention span when online has held them back in studies. They can’t see their friends and they trapped at home.
Several students unable to handle the stress or hailing from poor families are compelled to commit suicide which seems like the only option available to escape from the infinite burden on them.
These incidents have definitely triggered debates over online classes but these discussions have lost their way reaching nowhere definite.
While the developed world has already realized that this is a mental health crisis and they have put up a mechanism in place to deal with it, the authorities in India and back home in Goa are found napping, many parents this writer spoke to felt.
(The writer herself is the students and has written from her personal and her colleagues)
