The suicide of Vadithya Nehru (20), a student of Indian Institue of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, on Thursday is a reminder that the real test begins after the students enter the hallowed portals of premier institutions.
With this death, the total number of suicides committed by students of IIT becomes three, pointing to a disturbing trend among those considered the best in the country.
Academics and related stress play a key role in most of the cases, resulting in students reaching a breaking point. While some academicians blame the process of selection for having diluted the standards of the examination resulting in sub-par students getting through, students have a point to pick with the system where learning is equated with stress and meeting deadlines, leaving little time for self-evaluation and improvement.
“Electrical Engineering (EE) is a difficult stream to pursue. It is easy to fail in subjects if you lose focus. To some extent, the fault lies in the course structure which includes courses across electrical and electronic streams, unlike other institutes. Even in final semester we have to take 10 extra credits as compared to other disciplines,” a final semester student at IIT Hyderabad said on the condition of anonymity.
Despite scoring an All- India rank of 6193 in the general category, Nehru found the course challenging and performed poorly in his first and second semester EE examinations, following which his admission was terminated.
Educationists blame the objective-type pattern of questions for lowering the IIT-JEE threshold. “The trend of multiple choice questions has led to corporate colleges adapting a package form of education where students have to rote the answers. Even the standards of question papers have changed as now there are repetitions, a feature which was uncommon in the tests a few years ago. The IIT faculty I meet now say the quality of students from AP has gone down as students expect notes and ready-made answers rather than thinking creatively,” educationist Chukka Ramaiah said, who was credited with the earliest coaching institute in the city for IIT aspirants.
The decision of letting a student go should be preceded by counselling and getting them prepared to explore available options. “Students have to realise that academics is not the be-all and end-all of their lives. In IITs, it is a crowd of toppers of respective schools but students have to realize that there can only be one topper in a given stream. As their sense of self-worth and selfesteem is linked to their academic performance, failing expectations often leads to social withdrawal and depression,” student advisor at the Counselling Cell of IIT-H Madhu Chadda said. She added that a majority of students from rural areas not having requisite language skills hinders their progress.
Students can turn negative into positive by trying to participate in as many events as possible and making the best of their experience she said.
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