One mother has broken her silence on what the experience of her son admitting to self harm has been like.
On Monday, the Ministry of Education noted an increase in Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination self-harm cases.
The woman told Guardian Media it was difficult to witness her son buckle under the pressure of the placement test.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, the mother said the day after the exam this year will forever be etched in her memory.
“I went to work and when I got back home, he came up to me and said mom I want to die and I couldn’t understand why and then he showed me what he did to his body,” she said.
The mother said her son admitted to inflicting self-harm because he felt like a failure and believed he had not done well at the exam.
In recent times, questions have surfaced over the level of stress caused by the exam, however, Minister of Education Anthony Garcia maintained the exam was not the root of students’ anxiety but rather pressure placed by parents.
The mother said there was a perception that schools other than those considered prestigious were deemed unfit and unworthy of your child, “so if the minister seemed to ensure that all these other schools were at a certain calibre parents won’t have issues with children getting into those schools”.
She said it was extremely important for persons to speak out.
“I was afraid at first because of the stigma attached to it but there are other parents going through a similar situation as I am, and we need to focus on our children”.
Chairman of the Children’s Authority Hanif Benjamin also called for the conversation to centre around the child’s well-being.
According to Benjamin, “We turn the SEA into this brutal competition and to be honest with you, children shouldn’t have to go through that. Children shouldn’t have to be fighting for their dear lives at 10 and 11.”
Benjamin said when pressure is placed on children it introduces them to trauma which “causes them to be disappointed in themselves, thereby cutting and other self-mutilation. They are made to feel as though they disappoint their parents who pressured them and the third component is the pressure of the school who wants to be in the media for being known as the top school”.
Benjamin was hopeful that the Children’s Authority can engage in meeting with all stakeholders to discuss ways to address concerns that continue to surface from the SEA examination.