A Kota District Collector writes to parents of IIT aspirants

We love our children, but most often we think as parents and teachers that we know better for our child. It’s not always like that. Without realizing, we tend to pressurize our kids and push them to the edge especially when it comes to studies.

Due to the lack of support systems, many children are going through stress uncared and unattended for and in a few cases such situations disabled the children to such an extreme extent that they committed suicide.

Dr. Ravikumar, District Collector, Kota, wrote a heartfelt letter in response to the pressure we put our students out there to perform well in their engineering exams. Kota the coaching capital of India in Rajasthan see hundreds of students getting enrolled in their training programs to clear JEE Main. He sent this letter to all coaching institutes which were then forwarded to all the parents. We urge you, parents and teachers and students to read the entire letter here;

The district collector’s letter reads;

Just a final thought. Are we interested in making the child realize “Your Dreams” at any cost or should it be like creating such situations that the child realizes “His/Her” Dreams?

India churns out the largest number of Engineers in the world because Engineering in our country is a degree, kids generally have no say in it. Parents know the best, as they say. We end up robbing our children their childhoods because of the long hours they need to dedicate to prepare for one of the most competitive examination in our country. And when these kids feel that they are not doing enough, even though they are, or they think that they are going to disappoint, they take a drastic step because we as parents and teachers weren’t there for them when they needed us.

An intelligent girl with beautiful handwriting thanks her mother in her suicide letter for giving up her career to raise the children…. subtle hint that she was pricked on this matter again and again.

We push them to excel, without realizing that what they might be needing at the time would be a support system, a network of good friends, and in most cases, some sleep. It’s time we come together and stop putting pressure on our kids.