In India as in most other developing countries, there is huge admiration for the prestigious universities of Western countries and it is the dream of many brilliant students (not to mention their parents) to get opportunities to study there. Of course these universities have many great teachers and superb libraries as well as other admirable facilities.
However, to get a balanced view we must look at the other side also, and the present time of student protests (which have been joined by some faculty members as well) is a suitable time to do so. Recent protests in the context of the Israeli assault on Gaza have drawn attention to the endowments of prestigious US universities having close links to weapons and war-related industrial and financial interests. In such conditions it is unlikely that universities can give the much needed emphasis to peace studies which should perhaps be getting the highest priority now.
Secondly, university administrations have not been sympathetic to students and faculty members getting mobilised to raise issues of larger social concerns, even though these are related to protecting and saving precious human life, and have acted with undue haste to bring in police and make arrests, apart from victimizing student protesters in other unjust ways. Thirdly, even though the universities as well as governments are extremely rich, student debts have generally continued to remain at very high levels, despite sporadic efforts to provide relief. These have become a huge burden for young people starting their professional and family life.
In fact debt burdens saddle even those who are unable to complete their graduation. This is not just a matter of rising university costs and other such factors. A country as well-endowed as the USA with all sorts of riches is perfectly capable of educating its youth without getting them entangled in such difficult debts. Instead these heavy debts are a reflection of an increasing tendency to try to tie up younger people in such a way with debts that they feel more and more compelled to follow the establishment path and their chances of following their ideals (related for example to creating a safe and justice-based world) are minimized by the compulsion of paying back loans. Coming now to school education, particularly high school education, schools have often been in news due to shooting incidents, bullying and other violence.
However there are several even more serious problems that are less widely known. According to the data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Data Survey and Trends Report released by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, USA, for the years 2011- 21 (an earlier version of this report was quoted by the USA Surgeon General in the advisory issued by him in 2021), in 2021 42 per cent of all high school students and 57 per cent of female students reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” What is more, within a decade (2011-2021), this had increased in a big way, rising from 28 to 42 per cent. Why is sadness and hopelessness so widely pervasive in one of the richest countries with relatively high educational and health spending? At the same time, this data base revealed that in 2021, 22 per cent of high school students “seriously considered” attempting suicide.
This was as high as 30 per cent for female students. Most tragically, in 2021, as many as 10 per cent of all high school students (13 per cent of girl) attempted suicide. Such alarming official data raises a very serious question – in a rich country with such a high exposure to an immense diversity of entertainment and sports, why should such high levels of distress and stress prevail among high-school students? According to the Advisory on Mental Health issued by the US Surgeon General in 2021, there was an even higher rise in the suicide rate in the age-group 10-24 from 2007 to 2018 – 57 per cent. In 2018, suicide became the second leading cause of death in this age-group. According to the Surgeon General Advisory as well as several other reports, the grim situation in 2019 was exacerbated during the Covid period.
In early 2021 there was a further 51 per cent rise in emergency department visits by adolescent girls in the USA relating to suicide attempts, compared to the similar period in 2019. In the fall of 2021, a coalition of the USA’s leading experts in pediatric health asked for declaring a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. All these are alarming facts and figures. The surgeon general stated, “Even before the pandemic, an alarming number of young people struggled with feelings of helplessness, depression and thoughts of suicide – and rates have increased over the past decade.” However, while the data is there, no comprehensive, credible explanation appears to have emerged yet of why, in one of the richest countries enjoying special privileges, children and adolescents are in such an extreme stage of sadness, hopelessness and desperation. Of course in a country with so many capable, resourceful researchers and research institutions, several explanations have been offered.
Several of these draw attention to important aspects and offer helpful insights, but not an understanding that is comprehensive and deep enough to provide an effective base for remedial action. A nationwide survey of 21,678 US high school students by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Yale Child Study Center found that nearly 75 per cent of the students’ selfreported feelings related to schools were negative. Stressed, bored, tired – these were the most frequent expressions used by students. A Pew Research Center survey of teens in the 13-17 age group (2018) found that 57 per cent of them (64 per cent of girls) were very worried or somewhat worried that a shooting could happen in their school. Many studies of problems in high schools are more concerned about achievement levels. The Program of International Student Assessment, in a ranking of 35 OECD or rich countries, ranked USA at 30 in terms of Math learning of 15 year olds. Other studies have noted that those high school students who make it to college very frequently need remedial education, particularly in the context of Math and English.
In recent years about 60 per cent of all community college students and 40 per cent of undergraduates in four-year colleges in the USA have needed remedial education, which has been used as an indicator of inadequate learning at high school. This is despite the fact that several educationists have also criticized the high school education system for becoming increasingly obsessed with preparing students for college instead of trying to provide holistic school education that prepares students for many-sided challenges of life. Other studies have lamented that despite spending more per student compared to other OECD countries, the USA school system is recording lower performance, and that performance, in reading proficiency for example, did not improve despite the doubling of expenditure during 1970- 2004. While these studies no doubt have their own importance, in our humble opinion what is more important is the persistent feeling of sadness and hopelessness among students, and this should get more importance in terms of remedial steps.
This in turn should be done in terms of a more comprehensive approach that does not hesitate to look at wider societal ills. Meanwhile, while we in developing countries like India should be willing to learn from what is genuinely good and admirable in the western educational system, for a balanced view we should also be aware of the many flaws and mistakes that have created serious and avoidable problems.
(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril and A Day in 2071.)