The Broken Mental Health System

The first two paragraphs are an adaptation of an original comment I wrote on the r/Singapore subreddit.

I am awfully worried for students like me. In my opinion, the problem with our Mental Health  treatment machine is that those who need proper help fail to get enough of it meanwhile those who need not require help find these measures useless and boring and in some cases, further a

adding to the stress students face.

Imagine you're a student (or maybe you already are one) and you find yourself suffering from early signs of depression. There are four options for you. Talk to your Form Teacher, a School Counselor, seek Private Help or (unfortunately) give up. We know that students are more unlikely to open up about their mental health than adults (65% of adults do, only 32% of students do) therefore rendering the first two options redundant. Seeking Private Help is also useless since families are either unable to afford such help or choose not to, adopting a 'theres nothing wrong with you' approach

So if I became Education Minister today, here's what I will do. First, remove any 'Buddy System' to keep check kn each other's sanity because those never work (even my buddy bullies me) in place with solution no.3. Second, allow students to talk and interact with the counselor more often such as through talks, games etc. Since your counselor isn't hiding in the staff lounge now, you can discard of those CCE lessons about mental health which I've sat through for 5 years. Third, check in with students on their stress levels, nothing beats early detection. Fourth (and perhaps most importantly), cut the curriculum by at least 30%, no child should study both organic and inorganic chemistry in the same year. By compromising on the number of chapters and focusing on quality and detail, students can spend more time seeking help, discussing and appreciate the thing you're teaching.

I want to take a moment to talk about the staff now. Teachers already have a lot on their plate. They have to look after students, set papers, keep track on work, deal with idiot students etc. Their mental health is of same utmost importance and I wish not to offend or add to the workload of teachers through my proposal of solutions

Now I want to address why none of these solutions (any solution at all) have been implemented. That's because those who decide the course of the system have no idea what's going on in schools. These scholars and ministers have little input from those bearing the brunt of the the curriculum. They have no idea about those kids sleeping a 1am, they have no idea about those kids bringing homework out to restaurants with thier family, they have little idea full stop. I'm sorry Minister, but shaking hands with students is not going to solve mental health in schools. To summarise, if the people making the curriculum have no idea how its running, then what is the point of a curriculum?

Happy Reading! 

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month!