By Wisley Lau

Many people have read Suzanne Collins’ best-selling series The Hunger Games, but what if I told you, right now, there is an actual “hunger game” playing in real-time, and you’re in it.

The “get it done” mentality is an attitude ingrained in the education system which functions, in principle, to an order from a general, ushering soldiers to hurry up and “get things done.” Teachers set deadlines to finish schoolwork and these are often short and sometimes clash. From an organisational standpoint, it makes sense to set due dates, but when these dates start to crash and collide student stress starts to build.

This kind of mentality pushes students nervously to the edge and explains many burdens in student life. For example, one of the leading mental problems that students face is stress. Much of that stress is caused by facing schoolwork with neatly fixed deadlines. Not only do students need to face their own schoolwork and assignments, they have to take the time to revise for tests. 

Many also have extra-curricular activities that provide them with homework, like piano practice or finishing the drawing after painting it for more than one hour in the lesson. 

Also in the equation are out-of-school tutors, which help students with the schoolwork while at the same time providing their own homework. With the addition of a sustained project like the personal project, there is no wonder why students are increasingly stressed. 

Because of the sheer quantity of work students have to do, they will inevitably eat up what free time they have left. Whether it is on the weekends or working until the middle of the night, students are getting less sleep and rest, which affects their bodies both physically and mentally. This helps explain why students are increasingly tired and less attentive in class and less effective in learning.

The ‘get it done’ mindset mitigates the value of tasks the teacher sets and makes students feel fatigued. Take the Personal Project, a task assigned to students during the end of Year 10 to Year 11: lots of problems related to the personal project can be linked to the “get it done” mentality. With teachers posting strict deadlines and ever-changing criteria, it is difficult for students to cut and edit their work repeatedly in a short period of time when managing different assessments at the same time. Because supervisors force students to complete menial reflections and repetitive research, the true goal of the Personal Project is sucked out. Instead of a project based on personal interest, it soon becomes a chore instead of an interesting research project to prepare students for the extended essay.

To top off this messed-up sandwich, students are forced to comply with the system, whether or not they like it. One of the most extreme cases of the “get it done” mentality can be found in many high schools in China, where students are engaging in the real-life Hunger Games: the Gaokao. The Gaokao, effectively all the A-levels exams and a college admissions test smashed into one, is among the toughest exams in the world. Tests and mock exams are regular, student’s marks are frequently shown publicly in classrooms and many excruciating hours of revision are required. Students who are not good at studying are forced to join the competition because it is a public exam and the only way to exit high school, while at the same time they face pressure from parents and the prospect of a good future. In China, this means taking the Gaokao exam, getting great marks, and entering a good university to get a high paying job. Students aiming for high scores are fighting against the clock and persistently trying to squeeze out a higher percentile, which translates into hours of stressful, relentless studying. And in fact, some students suffer symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the Gaokao process. All this demonstrates the problem with the “get it done” mentality: they are playing an intellectual, and invisible Hunger Game.

The good news is Renaissance College is not as extreme as this. Yet, many students in Year 11 are starting to feel the rising pressure because these students are going to face the IB diploma, while at the same time, preparing to find a university of their choice. which means also preparing for all the entry requirements needed for entering university, such as participating in more activities and aptitude tests like SATs, ACTs, or even the UCAT. Not to mention that top universities require you to get more stuff done and display your achievements to be competitive when facing other students across the world. 

It should be made apparent that the author of this op-ed is not calling for a revolution in the educational system and abolishing the “get it done” mentality. There is no way this mentality will be departing from the educational world because as long as we have assignments and homework, there will be stress and pressure. But in today’s educational world, lengths have been taken to the extremes and it's actively harming children despite the bureaucrats’ good intentions. Unfortunately, all we can do now is to reduce some of this ridiculousness.

For example, schools could abolish exams. Some schools in different countries, like Finland, have tried that out, and students’ marks in math and science have remained in line, and occasionally, even better than schools that regularly have exams. Teachers could be more understanding and lenient to students by communicating with students when setting deadlines. For example, the various departments could discuss assessment dates with each other to minimize the chance of multiple assessments on one day. Tutors and extra-curricular activities could also consider giving students less work or making tasks clearer to lessen the pressure. While schools and universities could select students not only based on grades and activities but also on personality, interests, and views. 

The solutions recommended will not be the only fix, and nor will they be easy. The “get it done” mentality works differently with different students, and invariably is a complex issue to tackle, especially given the established academic norms. But by taking action, we can lessen the negative impacts of academic rigour on young people.