Call for Action for the International Students’ Day: Mind Our Education
The Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU) and the European Students’ Union (ESU) are launching a joint Call for Action for the International Students’ Day, happening on 17th of November. This year, we highlight how the lack of supportive and preventive education environments affect the mental health and general well-being of students.
A healthy education environment is far from being guaranteed for all. An internal OBESSU investigation has shown that school environments are highly stressful for school students. The increased pressure to succeed, the undervaluation of the personal dimension of education and the lack of information and lack of psychological and mentoring support services, result in students not knowing how to manage their mental health and often leads to self-diagnosis. This, in turn, can result into excluding people from continuing their education, especially in difficult social environments or disadvantaged areas where mental health is still highly stigmatised.
We are demanding that all students be guaranteed a healthy environment in order to fully access education. In particular, we demand:
- mental health education to be part of national curricula,
- free and high-quality psychological and mentoring support,
- medical checkups for all students,
- full recognition of ill mental health as a factor impacting on school and higher education performance,
- student-centred learning and
- inclusion for all students, regardless of their background
How can you support and join the campaign?
Co-sign the campaign as soon as possible via email at 17now@obessu.org, use these communication materials to promote the campaign on your social media channels and website, use the hashtags #MindOurEducation, #17Now and #InternationalStudentsDay, and tag @OBESSU @ESUtwt and the organisations you want to reach out to. The campaign will be running from now until the 17th of November 2018.
We hope you will accept our invitation to make this call for action become true!
