Right to error

It in inhuman to consider oneself ‘error-free’. Humans are not machines, and even machines do not guarantee cent percent accurate results.

It is very common that when students make errors they are scolded for doing wrong which was not intended otherwise, which is what then leads to depression and anxiety.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is one of the leading widespread diseases amongst young adults and children worldwide. More than 300 million people, in the age bracket of their twenties and early thirties, are living with this deadly disease.

For students, it becomes unmanageable to cope with stressful conditions when they encounter situations that are hard for them to accept mentally, such as settling-in at new colleges with new colleagues, changes in hostel living situations, different roommates, getting used to the new academic culture, change in curriculum and teachers, different food and resting places etc. Henceforth, with the passage of time, this stress grows, and breeds depression and anxiety in students.

Students who plunge into depression lose interest in their studies and start staying away from friends’ and family gatherings and group discussions. They lose their appetite and develop sleep disorders and withdraw themselves from social life. Their unhappy attitude and loneliness drives hopelessness, and slowly and gradually thoughts of suicide dominate which result in the end of a beautiful life of a learner who otherwise looks fit and fine.

According to the WHO, every day 15 to 35 people commit suicide in Pakistan; and in 2016, 5,500 suicide cases were recorded. CBS news reported that out of every five college students in the US, one is considering suicide due to study-related stress. Worldwide, 1,100 students chose to end their life each year.

This can be avoided by eradicating the negativity attached with the notion of error. If notions such as ‘without errors innovation is not possible’ and ‘errors lead to improvement and better results’ are inculcated in students’ minds, thousands of lives could be saved.

In other words, educational institutes need to develop the error management skills of their students. In order to achieve this, effort is required from both students and teachers along with the added support of their parents.

Educational institutes should ask their faculty not to scold students for unintentional errors but rather help them deal with it. In this way, students’ ability to develop new ideas and to come up with innovative solutions will be strengthened. Institutes need to develop a ‘manual of errors’ for laboratory experiments which should clearly elaborate the experiment under study, possible errors attached to it and their tentative solutions.

In this manner, students who are new will not put a self-imposed label of ‘weaker than others’ on themselves. Contrary to this, they will develop confidence and will react in a positive manner, confident that they are not the first to have committed such an error.

The manual will help them rectify the error and will give them a chance to perform better. The discovery of penicillium that led to the development of the penicillin drug, which changed the course of medical history, was the result of an accidental experiment. If the researcher would have stopped his trial-and-error technique, such an important addition in the field of medicine and a gift to the humankind would have been a dream.

In addition, teachers should arrange brainstorming sessions and encourage every student to speak. This will allow all students to share their thoughts and those who otherwise feel neglected will have their voice counted and they will gain the strength to pitch useful ideas. Also, institutes should replace the word ‘fail’ with ‘try again’ on academic transcripts in order to provide moral support to students to regain strength and retry with better performance.

Educational institutes need to develop a culture of ‘openness to errors’ and provide counselling facilities, putting more stress on error management. Unless the ‘right to error’ is given to students, depression will bar them from thinking out-of-the-box, and in an extreme case will push them to escape this world considering themselves as unworthy.

The writer works as an executive assistant at the PM’s Office, Board of Investment, Government of Pakistan.

Email: fariduk.anu@gmail.com