Sayantani explores the tragic intersection of academic pressure and mental health, challenging the toxic culture of success on DifferentTruths.com today.
AI Summary
- Systemic Pressure: Academic milestones like NEET and JEE have transitioned from educational goals into high-stakes, life-defining identity crises for Indian youth.
- The Burden of Expectations: Societal glorification of toppers and intense parental pressure create a dangerous environment where failure feels synonymous with worthlessness.
- Need for Reform: The article demands a shift toward prioritising student well-being through mandatory counselling and redefining success beyond standardised testing.
Every year, India celebrates its festivals and, with them, the success stories of achievers in various educational fields.
A daughter of a daily-wage worker secures a top rank. A village boy, despite all odds, successfully scores the highest marks in NEET. Morning newspapers, with the result declaration, get flooded by the coaching institutes. Bright institutes’ smiling faces, with giant scores and bigger promises, inspire the next batch of students.
But hidden behind these celebrations awaits another annual ritual that receives far less attention.
The curse of dreaming.
As lakhs of students appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) this year, reports of student suicides once again surfaced from different parts of the country. Some ended their lives before the examination out of fear. Others did so after believing they had failed. Some more due to surface-level news, which indicates the government’s negligence regarding paper leaks or the re-examination schedule—a few left notes apologising to their parents.
The question is no longer whether these incidents are unfortunate. The fundamental question is: Are they becoming the ‘new normal’?
When an Exam Becomes an Identity
Among the many renowned examinations, JEE and NEET are not merely tests.
For a huge number of Indian families, it is a financial investment, a social balance and status, and, of course, a childhood dream come true, compressed into just three hours.
There is time-consuming preparation for those students, at the expense of the very basic needs of life. Hours of coaching classes take a toll on sleep, hunger, friendship, childhood, and even the smile.
And by the time of the examination, it is no longer an achievement but a survival theory. The consequence is that a missed opportunity feels bigger than a big failure.
Failure, therefore, feels far bigger than a missed opportunity. If we speak about psychological analysis, it can be called “identity fusion”, which, in simple words, refers to when a person’s single goal becomes inseparable from self-worth. And if that particular goal fails, then they feel like they have failed as a human being. For a seventeen-year-old emotionally developing child, it can be devastating.
The Silent Weight of Expectations
Parents are often very encouraging and do everything for the betterment of their children. But somewhere along the journey of learning and teaching, encouragement becomes a hidden expectation → expectation becomes pressure → pressure becomes a nightmare.
A child might not hear the words directly as “You must be a doctor or an engineer”. Yet from the very beginning of their senses, they are bound to observe the sacrifices their parents make to pay coaching fees, the comparisons with successful peers, and the conversations that happen out of frustration with friends and family.
They get a clear message: “Don’t dare to disappoint us.”
Unfortunately, those students who take such severe steps are not weak; rather, they are much more disciplined and responsible for their age. They are sincere and care too much about their surroundings, which becomes their burden.
Education Centre or Coaching Factory?
The coaching centres that started as personal help for students after school became an industry in a very few years. Cities like Kota have been synonymous with the pilgrimage of medical and engineering preparation.
Thousands of students travel long distances, leave home, and spend their entire time in a hyper-competitive environment. They are constantly reminded where they stand, but also that ranking becomes their identity. Only the toppers are celebrated, and the average or above-average students become invisible. And the students who are genuinely struggling feel worthless. Education has slowly become a production line, where every year, students are treated as outcomes, measured by their percentages and ranks.
Social Media Makes It Worse
Just a decade ago, students were compared with their classmates; now they have to compete with the entire country. The success stories are not limited to the inside page of the top newspaper once a year; they are also published on various social media platforms, accompanied by comments and stories.
NEET toppers score full marks – the toppers share their exclusive study routine – toppers have cracked the toughest exam on their first attempt easily.
Hence, the thousands of struggles remain in the dark behind the curtain. The failures who might have changed their stream and career and found success elsewhere are never celebrated to inspire those thousands of average students.
The Bigger Problem: Success, a Single Definition
For decades, the most dangerous message society has been sending to students is that being a doctor or an engineer is the highest form of achievement. A student who clears the NEET or JEE with flying colours becomes a hero for the nation. The narrow-minded definition creates a psychological trap for students on their way to becoming teachers, artists, or even social workers.
An examination can maximise a student’s admission to an institution, but not the worth of a human.
What Needs to Change?
As the system has evolved, it may no longer be possible to change it at the root. But we can always try to humanise it for the sake of young minds.
It should start in schools with a mandatory, not optional, counselling system for every institution. India desperately needs a strong student counselling boardoperating at the grassroots level of education, from primary schools to universities. Competitive examinations such as NEET, JEE, UPSC, and other national and international entrance exams should offer different levels of counselling throughout the process.
Parents need specific training for providing emotional support. Institutions and coaching facilities are required to report on students’ mental health and well-being, not merely results. The media should stop glorifying the ranks of the toppers, eliminating the mental support for millions of other students.
Society has its own major duty, too. They must stop asking a seventeen-year-old mind the most ruthless question: “How much did you score?”
Perhaps the question should be “Howare you feeling?”
Beyond the Numbers
Every student who decides to end their life leaves a painful reminder.
They didn’t lose their lives because the examination was tough to crack, but they lost hope.
Life is not dependent on one-day exams or results; it offers countless opportunities and avenues for reinvention. We need to assure them that failing an exam is not the end of the story. We cannot let society value marks more than minds and, in that inhuman process, keep losing the stars.
If India can create high-standard boards and members to regulate major exams, then the country can easily create boards to protect students’ mental health and overall well-being.
We need responsibility over ignorance to build an excellence benchmark.
Picture design by Anumita Roy
Sayantani Mukhopadhyay is a writer with a bold passion for journalism and empowerment. She holds a background in English Literature, Human Resource Management, and Mass Communication and Journalism. Her work blends critical inquiry with people-focused insights, centring on sustainability, social issues, and conscious living. Through authentic and research-driven storytelling, she strives to amplify voices, challenge norms, and inspire collective awareness and action.
By
By
By
By