Why The Cry For Academic Break Must Be Heard
In this current setup where deadlines seem to be worth more than our own mental health, it is sometimes so hard to consider, even to ourselves, the idea of resting. No matter how much we need or feel the urge to rest, it sometimes feels unjust to actually rest because, again, the deadlines are waiting. We sometimes focus on finishing school works on time without even realizing its cost — our mental health.
When the pandemic started almost two years ago and classes were then forced to be conducted online, the cry for academic break immediately burst shortly after the remote classes started. Since then, reports about the students’ struggles to cope with the new mode of learning have been everywhere on social media. The students’ mental health became worse than it already was and that led to unfortunate events of students committing self-harm and worse, suicide.
Recently, Saint Louis University, a Catholic university in Baguio City, made noises on social media after reports of multiple suicide of students pointing academic pressure as the cause surfaced. Students of SLU have been demanding academic break since 2020 but the university failed to consider their call which now resulted to an alarming rate of suicide cases.
Academic pressure has been an issue even before the pandemic started, but it became worse when students resorted to remote learning. Aside from the fact that remote learning is not for everyone, it also only caters to privileged students which makes the rest of the student population left with no choice but to either unenroll or risk what they got to risk, which in this case is their mental health.
University institutions have the main goal of wanting to produce competent and skilled graduates, but what they’re doing to their students is the exact opposite of it. Remote learning is not learning. It only benefits a certain bracket of students. At this point, not even time management helps. Online learning consumes a lot of our time and energy, all for the purpose of not learning even a single lesson.
Learning shouldn’t feel that much of a punishment. Learning should be fun, effective, and collaborative.
Learning should never take someone’s life and dreams.
Written by: Angelika Cual