Even though most exams have been either cancelled or deferred in view of surge in C19 pandemic, still the whole action plan of study for most students is how to crack exams. And as a result, stress is not going anywhere despite nobody wanting it.
SkillingIndia, a Skills development startup, is showing a way to build skills to keep away the stress and in that effort it recently organized ‘Exam Stress Management’ online webinar series in association with colleges –Mahatma Gandhi Memorial College Udupi, VET First Grade College, Bangalore, AVVM Sri Pushpam College Thanjavur, Besant College, MLA Academy of Higher Learning Bangalore, and Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College Bidar to build skills amongst students to manage exam stress and develop a learning mindset.
More than 600 students of colleges across the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra benefitted from these webinars..
The experts on counselling and psychology from SkillingIndia and Peakmind.in addressed conducted workshops. The sessions covered why & how stress happens, causes of stress, signs of being stressed out, coping strategy, awareness and relaxing techniques to deal with stress. This helps in building skills not only in personal but also in professional life. “Mental Wellbeing, Resilience and Stress Tolerance” is one of the Top 10 future skills identified by SkillingIndia research. As the students get into the workforce, they will encounter various other forms of stress as well as demands on their emotions, time and resources, and such skill will be essential for them to navigate the world.
In the words of Manish Chowdhary, Founder & Director SkillingIndia, “In India, parental expectations and too much perceived importance of marks creates a lot of undue pressure on a student. Ability to understand and manage this stress is an important skill every student should learn. I would advise parents to provide a supportive role and understand the emotions which the child is going through at this juncture. They can enable the child to make their emotions work for them rather than be affected by them. I would also advise children to take regular breaks, to exercise, play and indulge in co-curricular activities. This would help in positive outcomes in a child.”
Meera Edna Coelho, Associate Professor – Department of English, Besant College quoted, “The session was excellent and mind-blowing with the presenter ensuring all students were relaxed and participative. I am sure the students would agree with me on this. Such sessions are the need of the hour as a lot of new and exciting concepts were discussed which will help the students in their exam preparation and success.”
Academic stress and mental health of Indian high school students is a challenge. More students report stress due to academic pressure, a lot of them reported feeling pressure from their parents for better academic performance. If symptomatic of psychiatric issues are factors in many cases but bulk is examination-related anxiety.
