Although there has been a paucity of suicide issues among students, the resurfacing of this matter from time to time has called for concerns from stakeholders in students’ education.
Mr. Divine Kpe, an educationist is among such stakeholders who speaking to UniversNews, described the educational system of the country as only prioritizing the interests of a few select students while relegating average and nonperforming students to the background.
This he explained accounted for adverse psychological effects on students, driving them to extreme points such as suicide.
His comments follow the suicide of a final year student of the University of Development Studies in Wa in the Upper East region earlier this week, who reportedly took his life over poor academic records which would disallow him from graduating with his colleagues.
“Over the years, the actions or inactions of teachers, the school environment, authorities, and even our own syllabus has made some people excluded from the educational system even though they’re attending school. Indeed, we can’t sweep under the carpet the fact that the way teachers teach, the way our educational reform is has contributed to so much pressure on some students to the extent of them committing suicide because they perform so low in school.”
This, Mr. Kpe explained as a ground to worry, maintaining that, the system and the methods some teachers use in teaching divert more focus to and invest more in excelling students at the expense of those who have challenges in the academic sphere.
The educationist further highlighted measures that should be embraced to create an all-inclusive educational system which would help improve the performance of students struggling academically, as well as forfend extremities such as suicide.
“There has to be a parachute to include those who are cut off from the system especially in terms of academic performance. If there can be remedial attention for such students to accommodate them, fair enough, it can be done. And also with the methodology of teaching, everybody has his or her learning style. There has to be a way for the teacher to know that point of learning style in order to bring in innovation that would accommodate especially the average student.”
He further admonished all players in education to recognize and appreciate the talents of students and not only look at their performances in tests and examinations.
“There’s the need to celebrate students’ talents. If a child has talents but probably does not score in mathematics or read proficiently, at least, let’s celebrate the child other than making only the ‘so-called smart students’ feel they belong to the school while those who are not performing well do not belong. If we do that we put so much pressure on our students; the accumulation of the pressure and the depression alone can cause a lot of emotional distortions in their psychological development.”
By: Linda Agyei Kwarteng Mensah/universnewsroom
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