Kota Suicides: Experts Warn Institutes Against Batch Segregation With Names Like Star, Leader, Repeater, Enthusiast

Experts suggest that naming and segregating batches with names like Star, Leader, Repeater, and Enthusiast, acts as a demotivating agent for students from the non-elite batches.

Experts Warn Against Batch Segregation In Coaching Institutes In Kota (Representational Image)

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With the rising incident s of students suicide in Kota raising severe concerns on the mental health of students and the learning ambiance in Kota, experts have now warned coaching insistutes in Kota to not segregate batches. Notably, some coaching centres practice segregation of batches with names like Star, Leader, Dropper, Achiever, Repeater or Enthusiast, and others. With multiple suicides by students studying in Kota being reported in the past few months, serious concerns have been flagged on the coaching ecosystem and the academic pressure on students studying in these coaching institutes. 

As per the district administration and psychological experts, the segregation of batches of students based on the aforementioned lines which also hint towards a possible push towards the more ‘elite’ batches, serve as a demotivating agent to students from other batches. On the issue, Kota District Collector OP Bunkar told PTI that coaching institutes are being advised against using such batch segregation. "The students are not apples and oranges that we can segregate them accordingly. Every student has different requirements and segregating them in batches is like stereotyping and leaves less scope of benefiting from each other," he was quoted as saying by PTI.  

Considered as the elite among all batches, the ‘Star Batch’ is one which has the concentration of top performing students, and the batch generally receives the most attention and efforts with additional and motivating sessions. "The Repeater" and "Dropper" batches on the other hand consist of students identified by the institutes as currently underperforming, but ones with a potential of doing better. 

While the naming of batches in the said batches allows coaching institutions to allocate appropriate resources including specific teachers among batches, the nomenclature does tend to take a toll on the psychological end of young students. 

"The moment you shift one student to a different batch on basis of his or her deteriorating performance, you are already telling the student that it is a lost battle. The confidence of the student takes a hit and at times they do not recover. The whole battle becomes about moving to the 'elite' batches and not the main exam. Sometimes when parents get to know about the 'downgrade' they put pressure on the student and the cycle never ends," Neena Vijayvargia, pyschiatrist at Health Mind Clinic was reported as saying. 

"Sometimes in the star batch also the students start feeling demotivated, because so far he or she has been a top performer and the moment he enters that batch, the rank goes down. Similarly, if you repetitively tell a student he or she is a gap-year candidate, a fact that is already being reminded of at home, and they are bound to feel depressed.," she added. 

Students suicides in Kota gain the center stage of discussions and thinking considering the fact that over 2.5 lakh candidates flock to the city every year for JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) and NEET (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) exams. However, after being enrolled in coaching centres in the city, students are reported to commonly battle with packed schedules, cut-throat competition, constant pressure to do better, burden of parents' expectations and homesickness. 

"We agree the exams like JEE and NEET are extremely competitive but the idea is to prepare students holistically. In an exam where every two marks deducted makes a students' rank slip by several hundred positions, giving this kind of mental conditioning to students is not a good idea. A very sharp student and a little less sharp student can study together as they can get motivation from each other," Dinesh Sharma, head of psychology department at Government Nursing College was reported as saying on the matter. 

Following the rise in students suicides in Kota recently, the district administration has enforced preventive measures under its jurisdiction to curb these incidents and help students ease their stress. The district administration asked all hostels flat owners and all paying guest accommodations to mandatorily install pring-loaded ceiling fans, anti-suicide nets in buildings, weekly off, enhanced monitoring of student activities by hostel wardens amon, and others as steps to curb self-harm by students. Additionally, in the backdrop of recent suicides, coaching institutes in Kota have been asked to call off routine tests for the next two months for students preparing for JEE and NEET Entrance Exams.

(With inputs from PTI)