School Phobia

Phobia in a simple sense means fear. It is a type of anxiety or disorder. Apart from other common phobias like Hydrophobia, Catoptrophobia(fear of mirrors), Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), School Phobia is another commonly noticed phobia in present time. School phobia is a kind of fear found in school going children who deny going to school showing pretty reasons from headache to stomach ache. If the child does not like going school there is some psychological problem behind this. Some of the symptoms of school phobia may be frequent stomachaches and other physical complaints such as nausea, exhaustion, or headaches that cannot be attributed to a physical ailment Clinginess, tantrums, and/or panic when required to separate from a parent or caregiver.

When the child disagrees to go school, we should understand either he has made a mistake or he is suffering from unnecessary burden and irritations at school. There are several reasons for the students not to like going school. Whatever may be, the understanding parents should try to know their mentality at home keenly observing their behaviors being their friends.

One reason might be that the friends of your child don’t belong to his or her category. Their topics of talk, interest don’t match. This will create loneliness for your child. This problem can be easily figured out through minor initiative. All parents need to watch is if their child has got friends or not. It can be depicted through phone calls that your child receives or through the team sporty act. It can also be that the child has been lagged behind in studies and it is difficult for him to catch it. Just consider, if your child don’t know how to a hand over the course where he is today. For a medium class family, if the child is admitted in hi fi School, the child may have the feeling that he is not as smart as others. ‘All other come school in their car, and I have to go on foot’. This sort of feeling as well can create trouble in those young minds. From the broad vision, the environment of the school, friend’s circle, stress given by school on studies can be the basic reasons why a child hates school. I remember my sister who always used to cry before going to school. Later when the school was changed, the problem erased and she improved her studies as well.

Although the facilities and extracurricular activities in today’s schools are increasing this fear has been developing more. There are certain factors why the child denies going to the school. On the other hand, it may be that the child wants to do something more comfortable outside of school, like practice hobbies, play computer games, watch movies, ride with friends, or learn autodidactically. Reasons should be searched rather fiercely dragging the child to the school.

To overcome this phobia some steps are to be carried out both at home and at school. For school, it should have a school counselor to establish a caring relationship with the child. Use of behavior contract to be reinforced with a reward such as a sticker can be helpful for small child. Some more other ways to remove School Phobia are helping the child build self-confidence by discovering his or her strengths, by providing opportunities for the child to excel, identifying particular activities the child enjoys doing and those that produce anxiety, Adjusting work assignments to match the student's academic skills. Similarly, at home, eliminating any "fun" activities at home when school is in session making provision of play dates with classmates to encourage friendships, attending school related activities are helpful steps from family side.


Finally, the major problem regarding the education system in Nepal is that we focus only on theoretical knowledge which keeps us behind when we have to compete with the external world. There definitely exists some entertaining ways to teach children how to learn. Various games are there, It will be a good idea for sure if we teach “A for Apple “and show them real apple. But the system we undergo is we explain A for apple and compel them to mug up. Even at secondary level, the course has been designed in such a way that students have to mug up the life cycle of fern, but I wonder in how many places it is exactly shown. So implementing practical side is one best way. It’s common thing for any teacher not to notice one particular student out of the mass. This creates discrimination. Proper distribution of students in class and proper notice to each and every student is required.

A teacher should be friendly with students. I remember my school, where a teacher used to check our vest and if it was not of white color, they used to punish us. All of us used to hate the teacher. What’s wrong with the vest inside that we wear? Okay, checking nail, handkerchief is considerable but what is wrong with the vest? School should never implement such stupid rules. Pressures simply burden students. Schools should never give pressures to the students. Homework and class work should be limited so that they can never pressurize on them.

Two parties, school and parents are equally responsible for giving birth to the problem of school phobia in the students. A mutual understanding among a child, teacher and parents is necessary to drag the assents of nation in a correct and right path. Parent- teacher interactions will contribute a little to solve the phobia.