How do the new challenges faced by students in the 21st century affect them?
Long gone are the days where it was okay to be middle of the pack in school, spend your evenings with your friends and enjoy your youth to the fullest, not being worried for the future or making a place for yourself in the market. It is an era of uncertainty and competition where students have to be diligent and have no options but being outright exceptional, the pressure from the shrinking job market is the critical issue which has bred this competitive academic culture where the goal is excelling not understanding. new challenges faced by students.
Schools have stopped being a place of learning; rather, the single most significant cause of stress and anxiety in current teens and even younger children. The rigorous academic curriculums and tuition, which a student needs to take to break even with the academic demands put to them are nerve-wracking. It is expected of an average student t to study about 6 -8 hours at school than anywhere from 2 to 6 hours in further tuition and academies and then come home to engage in self-study.
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Unlike their parents who would go out with friends and have fun or engage in other hobbies, such acts are not only nigh impossible for an average student to fit into their routine they are also discouraged and looked down upon by the society. The number of mental health issues this has caused in the form of depression, stress, anxiety and suicidal tendencies over grades and the routine should already have been an eye-opener. A study in the US found that there has been a 47 per cent increase in cases of depression and stress in students aged 12 to 13 and similarly a 46 per cent in those 18 to 21. the rates of suicidal tendencies were also seen by this study to have doubled in youth.
The extreme rate of advancement of technology which students are expected to keep up with if they want to stay relevant is also an issue that is not addressed by schools. Specifically, in 2020 with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic students have been relegated to online learning and using new tools that they had received no guidance of before and yet still expected to perform academically at the same standard. This absurdity in our education system where they turn youthful smiles into eyebags, and sullen faces needs to be addressed promptly and adequately.
