Should India also make Psychological health education a compulsory subject like China?

Meetali Asiwal

Thinker | Posted on 16-Jul-2018

In China, the Ministry of Education has recently asked universities to introduce a course in psychological health which will be mandatory for every fresher to take. According to the guidelines, the course will be allocated two credits and 32 to 36 hours of time.

Not only this, the ministry has suggested to develop various online courses to promote psychological health education among youngsters and has advised the universities to appoint at least two head psychologists in all the institutions dealing with higher education.

Now coming to your question that should the same system be adopted in India or not, I would reply to it in positive. Much has been said and done about and to the syllabus of our country on both school and university level. More often than not, our ministers think of what the youth of the country is studying only when it has to do with culture, history, or politics. This is the reason why only History books were targeted for the change of syllabus, and why only English is being backed when it comes to making the study of a language compulsory.

The ministry, the administration, and the education system of our country has something which is seriously wrong. While China is tackling the individualistic problems of its citizens, we here are not able to see beyond sects, factions, caste, religion, language, and the prejudices that all these things offer. Our education system has failed to embrace the diversity of our country positively, and now it is also failing in tackling the possible problems that students may be facing.

We all know the number of students suffering from depression and committing heinous acts like suicide is increasing every minute. The reason behind this is the growing pressure and strictness of our education system. While countries like China are helping students to deal with their psychological problems by making them understand their intricacies, our education system can’t even make sex education compulsory. It’s a huge failure on the part of Indian Education System which must be checked.

Also Read:- Do you think that Indian education policies are being shaped and re shaped by bureaucrats?

Medha Kapoor

B.A. (Journalism & Mass Communication) | Posted on 25-Jul-2018

There just can't be two opinions about it. Indian education system has been asleep since quite a long time when it comes to actually addressing the needs of students. Increasing strictness and pressure has already pushed a lot of them towards the gateway of depression. Movies like Three Idiots delineate this scenario quite clearly.

Despite all the artistic and realistic criticism, however, enough steps have not been taken to incorporate the concern of psychological health into the curriculum. We live in a country where imparting knowledge about Menstruation and Sex is taken as a taboo. These so called hush-hush matters would take a long time to achieve their rightful importance, and we all know that. I just hope this doesn't happen with the education of psychological health as well.

China's example is really worth looking up to. No country can develop satisfactorily unless it ensures the awareness about both physical and mental health of the youth. China fortunately, understood it at a right time. India, unfortunately, needs more time to realize that.

Letsdiskuss

shristy singh

Blogger | Posted on 11-Jan-2019

China is a worldwide logical power and soon, could rise numero uno in the field of Artificial Intelligence. It spends over 2% of its GDP on logical research. It can hold researchers with alluring financing and pay rates.

China has a broad research framework, far better than that of India.

Indian pioneers (indeed, that incorporates the so-broadly revered Nehru) actually considered India second rate compared to the West. Clearly they wouldn't state it on our appearances, yet their activities, especially when it came to training, uproariously shouted of a feeling of inadequacy. That is the reason the instruction framework isn't intended to be imaginative by any means. You can credit him for beginning IITs, yet that is just about it.