This dreadful news profoundly grieves me. A friend of mine posted this to his Facebook page with a brief but poignant comment. Late in June, Sadat committed suicide at his home. For the greater welfare of humanity, an outstanding university student dedicated to social justice wanted to bring about reforms that would make the country a more secure and fair place to live. The world, however, is extremely nasty, harsh, and ruthless. A changeling and combatant lost his match. His demise was observed by a world that has now been forgotten, without any movement. His morality defeated Sadat.
Sadat Mahmud was the general secretary of the student union's Dhaka metropolitan branch. In November 2020, the private University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh barred two students, including Sadat, because they 'defamed the image' by participating in the student campaign for a 50% tuition fees reduction during the Corona pandemic. Sadat was advocating for all other students to save costs amid the crisis. During the Covid period, a global civilisational catastrophe occurred. Several governments in developed nations have taken unprecedented steps to aid society. In accordance with its mandate and capacity, the Bangladesh government has taken several measures to provide comfort. Diverse institutions have made sufficient efforts to ensure the global well-being of students. However, Sadat has forgotten that Bangladeshi universities are distinct from their Western counterparts. They are more inclined to maximise profits. Instead of boosting the welfare of students, they have increased their stress and mental health concerns. Sadat was expelled from the university. Who is to blame for Sadat's death? A private university that has no understanding of student well-being or the societal system that regulates our daily lives.
I reject the culture of blaming others. Life is significant to us. A father had lost his son, a sister had lost her brother, a country had lost a citizen, and a student organisation had lost its most stalwart combatant. A change agent has died while attempting to bring about change, sufficient to endure a colossal disaster. This raises several questions regarding our institutions of higher education. It raises the pertinent question of whether our higher education institutions are well equipped to handle students' stress, problems, and mental challenges. Do they offer good counselling or pastoral support to students? It appears that no private universities have adequate resources and support mechanisms to address the diverse concerns of their students. Sadat's untimely passing serves as a reminder that more needs to be done to organise higher education to be more competitive, agile, and humanistic to improve the well-being of our youth, who will be the future heroes of the country.
Sadat committed suicide. Why do university students commit suicide? There must be multiple causes. According to the humanitarian organisation Anchal Foundation, 101 students from various universities in Bangladesh committed suicide last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There were 101 suicides, 65 of whom were men, and 36 of them were women. Relationship troubles, family problems, mental distress, study-related challenges, financial concerns, drug addiction, and other factors contribute to student suicide. Suicidal cases among university students are not unique to Bangladesh; instead, they are a global issue. In the UK, the suicide rate for higher education students was 3 deaths per 100,000 students in the academic year ending 2020, for a total of 64 suicide deaths. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, one student in India commits suicide every hour, with roughly 28 such suicides reported each day. On the other hand, many students from wealthy countries find that the university's various counselling programmes perfectly support their well-being. But our situation is different, and none of our universities significantly provides such counselling services, if they exist.
I am curious whether Higher Education Institutions in Bangladesh have rules protecting student health and treating stress-related issues. Universities in developed and industrialised nations provide academic mentorship and counselling services to all students to assist them with various educational and personal matters. Sadat's efforts to reduce university tuition by fifty per cent were justifiable. This pertains to democratic individual rights. University's handling of this matter with the students: diplomatic? Do they have a policy outlining what to do in such a situation? Do they offer academic guidance to their students? If not, how do they justify their behaviour to this young man? Now is the time to reevaluate our educational system. Government should take significant steps to ensure that all educational institutions provide academic mentorship, counselling, and pastoral care to all students. Universities must embrace responsibility and accountability for the well-being of their students.
Students can benefit from such pastoral care in a variety of ways. Students who lack direction and motivation might assist in goal setting or focus on study skills. On the other hand, such programmes will help students with mental health issues. A growing percentage of adolescents seek treatment for depression and suicidal ideation. Emotional resilience that allows us to appreciate life while also tolerating hardship, disappointment, and despair, as well as a strong belief in our own and others' dignity and worth, are all characteristics of mental health. It also enables us to participate in suitable activities and give back to our community or society. We should all assess our mental health similarly to our physical, social, and spiritual health. Having a mental condition does not preclude having good mental health. Mental health concerns, which often result from significant life events such as the termination of a relationship, the loss of a close family member, or moving away from home, can substantially impact how students perceive themselves and engage with the transitions of student life. Symptoms might arise anytime, interrupting a student's university experience and impairing academic performance. Students' mental health needs and experiences will vary, as will how they choose to think about their condition and whether or not they want to reveal their challenges.
Students can be affected by mental illness or mental health concerns at any point in their academic careers. The underlying variables differ from person to person and are not directly related to their experiences in higher education. Nonetheless, some people may be stressed by some features of the higher education atmosphere and experience. Transitions in life are challenging in the start, middle, and end. In today's atmosphere, universities are under increasing pressure to improve their support for students experiencing mental health issues. Many students will have to adjust to considerable changes in their lifestyle. Sadat's death could have been avoided if we had implemented a system to help rather than punish him. It became clear that schools needed to be more effective in identifying and treating pupils who were having psychological and emotional challenges. A succession of sad student suicides in Bangladesh exposed the burden on university counselling services due to an increase in students seeking help for mental health difficulties and the disastrous implications when a university fails to recognise a student who may be at risk.
In many industrialised countries, the leaders of educational institutions have come to the consensus that to allow students to prosper academically, they should encourage health and establish campus environments that prioritise well-being as a value. In a similar vein, efforts are being made to dispel the stigmas that surround mental health problems. The academic performance of students, the number of students who remain enrolled, and the number of students who graduate can all benefit from institutions that demonstrate a dedication to student well-being. University students who report feeling a greater sense of well-being and belonging tend to report higher levels of motivation, increased levels of self-confidence, increased levels of engagement, and enhanced levels of academic accomplishment. Similarly, they exhibit a higher level of cultural knowledge, more robust critical thinking, higher levels of community service, and a greater propensity toward sympathy. However, the circumstance of our nation's institutions of higher learning is not the same. The great majority of private universities have financial gain as their primary goal, and they lack any kind of educational philosophy, and most produce substandard research and education.
Societies utilise education to train the next generation of individuals to become citizens, whereas nation governments use education to preserve their ideology. Academic misery could be an unexpected social tragedy resulting from the educational process. In Bangladesh, education has typically been viewed as a means to an end rather than an end. To escape their precarious social and class positions, many children and their families aim to obtain a "government job." Neoliberalism's rise as an economic and social philosophy has pushed young people to blame themselves for not finding their "dream job" while the government continues to ignore its fundamental responsibilities. The neoliberal agenda continues to propagate the notion that success is attainable via hard work, normalising the idea that young people are responsible for their "failures." Furthermore, the notion that Bangladeshi families are supportive must be refuted. As the fundamental social unit of society, the family influences the objectives and aspirations of youth. The rising number of student suicides prompts us to question how supportive our family structures are and whether they have a significant role in the increasing rate of student suicides. Students are distracted from the instructional process concurrently. Due to the absence of practical or activity-based learning, they cannot relate to education or apply it to their daily lives. Concerns about poverty and unemployment and the rising cost of a quality education may contribute to children dropping out of school.