When schools lose their soul

Vedabhyas Kundu & Munazah Shah

The tragic suicide of a Class X student, who jumped from a Delhi Metro station recently, leaving behind a note accusing his teachers and principal of mental harassment, has once again shaken public consciousness. The boy’s final plea that no other child should endure what he faced casts a piercing spotlight on the emotional fragility within our school systems. It forces us to confront an unsettling question: Are our schools truly safe spaces for children’s minds and hearts?

The incident has triggered an intense churn in different circles about the deteriorating emotional climate in educational institutions. Conversations with students reveal the growing “pressure cooker” environment they navigate daily — an atmosphere shaped by unrelenting expectations from both home and school. Many students admit to living in constant fear of failure, their confidence eroded by demands they feel unable to meet.

The pressures are further magnified by digital exposure. Smartphones, social media and constant connectivity have become gateways to toxic messaging, comparison and new-age bullying.

Students we spoke to shared painful experiences of being ridiculed for their body shape, skin colour, looks, speech patterns and even personality traits. These subtle yet pervasive attacks chip away at self-esteem and psychological well-being. Some young adults who recently transitioned to college confessed that schools today increasingly lack a psychological safety net — spaces where they can speak, be heard and feel held.

A school culture in crisis

To understand the roots of this crisis, one must examine the contemporary school ecosystem. In an age driven by relentless transactionalism, many schools have drifted toward commercialisation and competition.

Institutional prestige is now often measured through top ranks, medals and inter-school victories. As the race to excel intensifies, so does the pressure on school management, teachers, and, ultimately, students.

Conversations with teachers reveal a disturbing pattern: many educators feel constantly scrutinised, micromanaged and reprimanded. They describe workplaces where respect, professional dignity and emotional safety are compromised.

Under such hostile conditions, teachers’ own mental health suffers, inevitably affecting their interactions with students. Emotional exhaustion trickles down the hierarchy — what begins as pressure at the management level often manifests as harshness or impatience in the classroom.

Prof. Indira Dasgupta Cherukuri, who runs a school in Jharkhand, observes that school environments are increasingly becoming “melting pots of value erosion, commercialisation, undue pressures and diminishing respect for human dignity”.

She warns that these conditions are pushing students and teachers to their emotional limits. According to her, the modern school ecosystem is becoming compartmentalised, where individuals focus narrowly on personal targets and self-promotion, forgetting their larger responsibility towards nurturing young minds.

Her critique echoes a broader philosophical concern. As Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.”

Today, we must ask: Do our schools cultivate harmony, empathy and interconnectedness — or merely transmit information? Cherukuri’s effort has been to essentially bring this vision of Tagore into her school.

The missing literacy: Human interdependence

Our educational framework rarely teaches the essential literacy of human interdependence — the understanding that individual well-being is deeply linked to collective well-being.

Through the Joyful Talisman (an initiative and a book by Vedabhyas Kundu and Munazah Shah) framework, we argue that this literacy is an indispensable 21st-century skill. Many personal, institutional, and interpersonal problems arise because we are not trained to recognise our shared humanity, nor to navigate relationships with loving kindness, empathy, and compassion.

Cherukuri emphasises the need for a complete re-examination of school ecosystems — from foundational values to administrative practices. This introspection forms the backdrop of our Heart and Soul of the School with ‘Joyful Talisman’ initiative.

Reclaiming the heart and soul of schools

The Heart and Soul of the School with JoyfulTalisman initiative seeks to restore loving kindness, empathy, compassion, and human dignity as the guiding forces in all school interactions.

Its core objectives include:

• Reclaiming classrooms as living spaces where loving kindness, empathy, gratitude, reflection, and co-growth flourish.
• Enabling school authorities and teachers to embody authenticity, care, mindfulness, and nonviolent communication (which we propose must become the central communication architecture of all schools).
• Empowering students to trust and respect themselves and one another as co-learners while fostering cooperation over competition.
• Integrating socio-emotional learning with human values rooted in our deep-rooted wisdom and cultural traditions.
• Building measurable pathways for inner and relational growth as part of everyday classroom culture.

At its heart, the initiative aims to create a culture of belonging, mutual support and compassionate interaction, while encouraging servant leadership among school managements, teachers, and students.

Servant leadership — anchored in humility, empathy and the desire to nurture others — has the potential to transform schools into emotionally vibrant, psychologically safe spaces.

Such an environment fosters appreciation, gratitude, and positive interdependence — all essential ingredients for mental well-being.

Pathways to change

Introducing the ‘Joyful Talisman’ framework in schools can lead to transformational outcomes:

• Greater interpersonal trust and emotional well-being in classrooms
• Increased teacher authenticity, self-awareness and reflective practice
• A strengthened culture of non-violent communication
• Improved student engagement and cooperative behaviour
• Values-driven emotional learning integrated across subjects
• A school environment rooted in loving kindness, empathy, gratitude, joy, and integrity

The integration of these dimensions into school ecosystems can significantly enhance the mental health of all stakeholders — students, teachers and administrators alike.

Mahatma Gandhi beautifully captured the holistic purpose of education: “By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in the child and man—body, mind and spirit.”

It is this spirit that must guide our schools. The recent tragedy in Delhi is a painful reminder of what happens when educational spaces lose their emotional and moral compass. The challenge before us is not merely to reform systems but to restore the humanity within them. Loving kindness, empathy, and compassion must be embraced not as optional virtues, but as the very heart and soul of schooling.

Only then can we build institutions where children feel safe to grow, to learn, and to simply be.

(Vedabhyas Kundu is programme officer, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti; Munazah Shah is a broadcast journalist)