OVER 400 student suicides happened in academic year 2021-2022, according to the Department of Education (DepEd). Of the country’s 28 million young learners in public schools, a total of 775,962 sought the assistance of guidance counselors during the period, with bullying cases comprising about 8,000 of those numbers.
Meanwhile, two surveys conducted by the World Health Organization in 2015 and 2019 among teenage students showed an upward trend in suicidal thoughts among learners even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2015 Global School-based Student Health Survey among Filipino children aged 13-17 or those typically on Grade 7 to Grade 10, about 11.6 percent of the respondents said they “seriously considered” attempting suicide during the 12 months before the survey, while 16.2 percent attempted suicide one or more times in that period.
On the other hand, a 2019 study showed that 23.1 percent of respondents have “seriously considered” attempting suicide while a slightly higher percentage of surveyed students (24.3 percent) attempted suicide “one or more times” during the 12 months before the survey.
A separate research conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute indicated that close to 1.5 million young Filipinos tried taking their lives in 2021, compared with 574,000 young people who tried in a 2013 study. Overall, 3.3 percent of the population or some 3.3 million Filipinos live with depression and the suicide mortality rate is 3.2 per 100,000 population.
What do we make of this worrisome statistics?
We have to determine the extent of the mental health crisis among the youth and pave the way for targeted interventions. There is a need to conduct an in-depth assessment of and comprehensive study by relevant government agencies – such as the Department of Health, DepEd and the Philippine Statistics Authority – on the present state of mental health of the country’s education sector in particular, and the overall population in general, to address immediate needs and establish more mental health units in schools, hospital, or rural health units, among other measures.
We must look into the status of the seeming mental health crisis afflicting the education sector to institutionalize interventions and raise mental health awareness. The collective health of citizens greatly determines their overall socioeconomic development, as well as that of our country.
