EDITORIAL - Stress and the students

According to a report in Philstar.com, psychiatrists are starting to observe a rise in stress among students engaged in online learning as well as the parents of these students.

While Philippine Psychiatric Association fellow Joan Rifareal said that the link between online learning and stress has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt, they are seeing a rise in psychiatric consultations from students and their parents.

“There’s been a lot (of consultations), not only from students but also from parents going through rough times, especially those who work from home. They wear a lot of different hats,” Rifareal is quoted as saying in the report.

This may no longer come as a surprise for us. With or without pressure of online learning, the past seven months have been stressful on us all. Many people have lost their jobs or businesses. The lucky ones who got to keep their jobs or businesses during the pandemic know that they can lose them anytime for whatever reason. Nothing is guaranteed.

Jobs, businesses, and other opportunities weren’t the only losses. Some lost loved ones to the pandemic. Others are still cut off from being with spouses, children, and other family members and friends because of quarantine restrictions. And many in these situations still count themselves the lucky ones.

While it was tough for adults, it wasn’t easy for the kids either. We also should not be surprised if online learning may be adding to the stress of the students. There is the pressure for them to learn from a method never tried before on this scale.

For years the learning method they have gotten used to his face-to-face instruction. They have gotten used to being in a classroom with the teacher right in front of them and their classmates around them. Communication and interaction was never an issue.

Now they have to communicate with the teacher online, hoping that they can understand what is being taught, and that the power or the internet connection will not suffer any interruptions.

Stress during this very difficult time is a given, authorities should look into what can be done to minimize stress, and if such stress is affecting the students’ ability to learn.

All these modules, all these online sessions will amount to nothing if the students don’t learn from them because of the different things that eat away at their concentration and disturb their general well-being.