Female Deaths One Too Many

The tragic death of a female student on the University of Ghana, Legon campus yesterday broke the hearts of most parents, who heard about the sad news.

Happening at the heels of the suspected suicide of a female student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which sad incident occurred a few weeks ago, it triggers an expected question as to what exactly is happening which makes death a preferred option to ladies in their prime in recent times.

Perhaps their deaths were not suicidal after all and require very serious investigation to isolate the truth.

These yet to be explained deaths need the intervention of not only detectives but clinical psychologists and teachers.

When the death by hanging of a KNUST lady occurred, we had cause to proffer important suggestions about managing girls at the tertiary level of education.

It would not be out of place to suggest to the managers of our tertiary institutions of learning to consider engaging clinical psychologists and making them accessible to students.

The stress associated with academic work in schools at that level can be overwhelming for some students, a reality which can be managed with the engagement of clinical psychologists.

Students, when overwhelmed with stress, are mostly unable to determine where to turn to; some of them unaware about what clinical psychologists can do to mitigate the pain they are going through. The decision to commit suicide therefore becomes an appealing resort for some in the event that they do not know what to do.

Times have changed and the ages at which girls enter tertiary institutions have dropped. It is usual these days to witness very young girls in such institutions, something not common many years ago. The shortened duration for Junior High School education accounts for this situation also. At that age, some of these young girls are unable to contain the new types of stress unleashed by the new trends in life.

The social media world has come with an assortment of challenges which parents and teachers might have to help the very young girls manage.

We have also observed the sophistication which has come with modern relationships and the accompanying challenges therein and in which these young girls are active players. It is a fast world and our very young girls, in some instances, are unable to cope even as they savour it.

Parents too should appreciate the level of our sophisticated world and how much they can assist their rather fragile daughters to weather it. It might not be easy mostly as these girls will resist what they consider interference in their lives by old fashioned parents. They should be patient and continue talking to them and avoid applying undue force which could constitute another dangerous factor for the untoward.

We are being bombarded day in and day out with foreign films to which our daughters are mostly glued and learning from. While some of these show people committing suicide, others present women in different cultures responding to various stress situations.

We mourn with the parents of the deceased and others who died through tragic means.

Even as we pray that, that should be the last time we are going to hear such a tragedy befalling a female student, we would nonetheless demand that the law enforcement probe this death thoroughly.