Exam Stress

I am filled with excitement anticipating a family function I've been invited to attend. I eagerly await the day when I would meet all my relatives and chat away to glory . Upon arriving, I notice all the teenagers are missing especially the ones in high school. Model exams,coaching classes,tuitions are the responses I get from their parents on enquiring about their absence .
This leaves me pondering ..Are our youth so hard pressed for time that they cannot spare a day to relax and attend a family function. And this was not even the exam month...
One of the most disturbing factors noted among the young in India is the enormous pressure on them to perform well academically . Majority of the students in their teens are eternally confused and have conceded to the fact that their worthiness in school and society is to a large extent determined by their academic performance . Coaching classes for competitive exams like JEE , AIEEE have mushroomed now as early as class 6  and parents make a beeline towards such centres . Academics to a large extent is equated with science and maths in such a scenario. A disturbing trend in India is where students commit suicide unable to keep up with academic pressure.

This kind of stress isn't limited to any particular course or college. Right from premier institutes like IIT to a student who fails his regular school examination, the problem is widely prevelant.Majority of schools in India lay exclusive emphasis on academics and advertise for admissions with poster pictures of exam toppers . How many times do we see schools advertising a student achieving in sports or the arts for their admissions .
Comparison of a student with the over achieving siblings or neighboring kids could also spell doom to their confidence . If a student conveys to his parents about being interested in arts like music or fashion designing he or she is met with scorn and is told to do something useful like computer science .
Right from kinder garten where children are 'interviewed' upto college the student is guided in a fixed path of excelling in academics ,choosing a course with science and graduating preferably with a campus job.
Activities like sports , music take a back seat and are viewed as distractions from class 9 and stopped.
.Boards like CBSE have been making an effort to ease the burden of students by doing away with ranks , reducing excessive study portions and so on . More emphasis could be made right from school to make education less text book dependant. Subjects like science could be taught on a practical basis and the way to test the students learning could be through interesting projects rather than homework . Instead of viewing arts , sports as extracurricular activities students could be given the freedom to choose their area of interest like a sport or music and monitored for progress in their area of interest alongsideacademics.
How is it that in a country where such importance is given to academics , we hardly have any Noble Prize winners or cutting edge inventions and discoveries . Top US universities give a lot of weightage to CCA and extracurricular activities where they want people who can add value to their universities through their activities. This definitely boosts the confidence of youth and is also a great stress buster . It is time our education system eases the burden of exams on students and helps them in attaining all round growth and build a confident personality rather than a stressed out individual who refuses to take any risks.
Parents should also realise that placing undue pressure on their children would only unnecessarily stress them out. They should encourage their children to pursue activities they are interested in. Encouraging them to put in their daily hour of physical play at the playground would go a long way in inculcating physical fitness in them as well as act as a stress buster. This should be continued late into their teens and even in college. These steps would go a long way in making our country a world leader in all disciplines.