The onset of summer coincides with the start of the exams season countrywide. Every year in February-March, in the great majority of India’s 281 million households, there’s pervasive fear and nervousness as 30 million students prepare to write the make-or-break class X and XII school-leaving exams conducted by the country’s 57 examination boards. And another 230 million children are preparing to write year-end school exams which will determine their promotion to the next higher class. Unsurprisingly, parents and teachers are reporting a spike in children suffering exam-related stress ranging from panic attacks and blackouts which could lead to fatal suicide. The burden of parental expectation and intense competition for entry into the country’s few-dozen best colleges and universities, generates annual dread of exams and fear of failure. Examinations anxiety should not be dismissed as a normative rite of passage. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), during 2014-2020, 12,582 students resorted to the extreme step of ending their young lives by suicide because of examination stress. A more recent (2022) survey conducted by the Delhi-based National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) reported that 80 percent of class IX-XII teens suffer high anxiety and stress during the exams season. In our February issue cover story, we highlight that severe academic stress and anxiety has grave short and long-term impact on children’s physical and mental well-being. We connected with several well-qualified and reputed psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors soliciting their expert advice on ways and means through which parents can empower their children to confront examination phobia, manage stress and anxiety during this season of fear and loathing. The consensus of expert opinion is that parents can play an important role in creating home environments that empower children to prepare for D-Day. The timely cover story apart, this issue includes several other informative features. Among them: the Middle Years story explaining widely ignored underlying causes of children’s perceived ‘laziness’; Adolescence feature highlighting useful exam writing strategies recommended by IELTS exams trainer Bhavna Singh; and Special Essay providing 7 practical tips to ADHD adults for successful parenting. Also check out important advice about the early signs and symptoms of hearing loss in children by Dr. N. Vishnu Swaroop Reddy, Head of the ENT Department, Care Hospitals, Hyderabad.
