With the rising number of suicide cases among students in Kota, Rajasthan’s coaching hub is on a two months pause for conducting routine mock tests starting from August 28, 2023. The step has been taken on the back of measures rolled out by authorities to ease out academic pressure among students. However, NEET and JEE 2024 aspirants opine that instead of reducing stress, it has increased, as most of them claim that they feel unprepared. “The syllabus that needs to be covered for Engineering examination is almost equivalent to B-Tech first year. A 10th grade student is expected to complete this course within two years,”Abhigyan Kumar, an IIT JEE aspirant from Kota told FE Education Online.
As many as 23 students allegedly died by suicide in Kota in 2023, which is the highest so far. Last year this number was 15.
Moreover, according to another student who is a JEE aspirant from Kota, this decision has put students in the city at a great disadvantage when compared to their peers from other states. The same student has started a petition to withdraw the cancellation of exams in Kota on an online platform – Change.org. The petition was started on September 3, 2023 and has received 128 signatures till date.
Among the toppers’ tips from leading coaching institutes in Kota, one is to start appearing for mock tests at least six months prior to the first attempt at the Mains. “While students from other states shall be preparing for these exams, appearing for mock tests and so on, students in Kota will lag behind in preparation. For some students, this situation has become more depressing than other issues,” the petition stated.
The signatories believe that certain coaching institutes’ efforts to alleviate academic pressure through various initiatives such as regular Student Teacher Meetings, Fun Days, among other measures have slowed down the pace of syllabus completion. The group of students further suggest that the administration should instead provide enough holidays to students to cope up with the tight academic schedule and ensure that the environment is conducive to healthy lifestyle and learning.
From this, it is understood that the actual struggle for the students community in Kota extends beyond academic pressure as they have to face other challenges which include unbalanced diets, unpalatable mess food, cramped hostel accommodations, and limited social interaction leading to an overwhelming sense of isolation and inadequacy.