Biometric attendance, psychology workshops: Kota tries to cope with suicide reality, again

The district administration and coaching institutes now grapple with the uphill task of curbing more student deaths.

“Thirteen students have died by suicide this year. During the pre-pandemic time, 18 students ended life in 2019 and 20 in 2018,” Kota district collector OP Bunkar told The Indian Express on Wednesday. He said during the last two years, there was no suicide case reported because students had left Kota in the wake of the pandemic.

“Now, after the students have returned, we are again witnessing the phenomenon. Students are usually stressed and tend to take the extreme step in December-January because of the approaching examinations,” he said.

Those associated with coaching institutes say that after offline education resumed following the pandemic, the cognitive speed of students has reduced.

“The biggest change we are observing is that after the two-year pandemic, the cognitive speed of students has become slower, resulting in poor hand-eye coordination. For example, a topic that students would earlier understand within 15 sessions, now they are demanding 20-22 sessions for the same. Whereas, the duration of government examinations remains the same. It will take some time to change this scenario,” says Dr Harish Sharma, principal psychologist, Allen Career Institute, Kota.

He said he is also observing an imbalance between mental and physical energy of children due to physical inactivity and staying home during the pandemic.

“The imbalance in brain and body conditions leads to stress. After one-two hours of studying, students should now take a break, stretch their bodies. We are holding psychology lectures for them to tell them exact scientific basis on which the brain functions. Rather than motivational talks, students studying science respond better to logic. We have also formed layers of counsellors who diagnose their issues and resolve them,” said Dr Sharma.

According to the district administration, investigation has revealed that two of the three students who died by suicide weren’t regular in classes at Allen coaching institute.

“We got to know during investigation that one of the deceased students had not attended classes for a month. Another person was punching his card to mark attendance. The other student who died was also irregular in classes and while the institute did send messages to his parents, his family didn’t follow up on the issue. We have now decided that institutes should have a biometric system of attendance, which will mark attendance on the basis of the students’ fingerprints. This will help in keeping track if anyone is skipping classes,” said district collector Bunkar.

The Kota district administration on Tuesday held an urgent meeting after the three suicide cases, where representatives of coaching institutes were told to ensure that the existing guidelines are followed strictly.