No Information On Student Suicides Among Neet Coaching Centres, Although NEP 2020 Provides Counselling Recommendations: Education MoS

The government Monday made it clear that it does not keep track of the number of student suicides across all educational institutions and different coaching facilities, including those for NEET. Subhas Sarkar, the minister of state for education, made the announcement in front of lawmakers.

Sarkar was responding to inquiries posed by Ravneet Singh Bittu and Dr. TR Paarivendhar. The administration was questioned by the two MPs regarding statistics on NEET student suicides and whether they had any plans to develop a national standard operating procedure for coaching centres and other institutions in order to prevent coerced suicide among the students.

“The Ministry has undertaken various steps such as peer-assisted learning, the introduction of technical education in regional languages for students to ease academic stress. The Government of India initiative, named MANODARPAN, covers a wide range of activities to provide psychological support to students, teachers and families for mental and emotional well-being during the COVID outbreak and beyond. The Ministry has also advised the institutions to make the system more robust that would include prevention, detection and remedial measures for addressing possible causes of suicides,” Sarkar explained.

Additionally, he stated that all institutions of higher learning (HEIs) had received instructions to hold workshops and seminars on wellness and happiness, regular yoga classes, orientation programmes, extracurricular activities, including sports and cultural events, and more.