Heavy academic load makes students more prone to mental health illnesses, advocates highlighted in a forum in the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman on Wednesday.

​

One of the speakers, ABS-CBN broadcast journalist TJ Manotoc, observed this information from academic tutors around Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City who said that an estimated 75 percent of students from private schools in the area avail their services.

 

“You are looking at a child who's potentially working 11, 12, 13 hours a day. And you look at adults. The internationally accepted labor code is the average of eight hours,” Manotoc, who once suffered from clinical depression as a student, said.

 

With the usual number of hours students allot for studying—eight to nine hours at school plus three to four hours on tutorials—it is as if they spend more hours ‘working’ than adults, Manotoc discovered as he was producing a story for TV Patrol.

 

“Hard academic demands are great because they will push, push, push the students, so we will have great graduates, we will have brilliant leaders,” he said.

 

“But on the other side, you see the collateral damage: we have depression, we have anxiety, we have suicides. Is it worth it?” he added.

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Meanwhile, various university leaders supported the cause of the forum as they stated different programs in the university that forward mental health.

 

For instance, Dr. Guy Claudio, dean of the College of Social Work and Community Development, said that there will be a system-wide summit to “transform UP into a healthy and nurturing community,” which will be available for all UP staff, teachers and students.

 

According to Claudio, one goal of the summit is to help members of the faculty develop “better pedagogy” which would make students “find learning fun, rather than punitive”.

In addition, Business Administration student Dhan De Leon has recently founded COPE UP—a university-wide organization which advocates mental health awareness and gives assistance to those suffering from mental health problems.

 

“There are a million reasons for us to give up, but there will always be this one single reason for us that will want us to carry on. Find it, you are worth your life,” De Leon said.

 

De Leon suffered from clinical depression back in 2013, causing him to feel pressured to perform well in school. After his recovery, he became president of the organization he founded.

 

"This forum is not an attempt to give you answers to all your questions. It's not a forum that attempts to solve all your problems in relation to mental health awareness,” Atty. Gaby Concepcion, president of the Philippine Association of University Women-UP Chapter, said.

 

“More than anything, it is to create a sense of community in so far as mental health is concerned," she added.

 

Manotoc supported Concepcion’s statement, stating the importance of engaging the public in the mental health discourse.

 

“If we all talk about it, it becomes accepted, and it is okay to understand that there are 300 million people suffering from this,” Manotoc said. -- with reports from Merinette Retona