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Yoga Dissertations by MSc Students

Part I: Education in Ancient India and today with a focus on students “Anxiety factor”.
Part II: Efficacy of integrated approach of yoga module for general anxiety in normal students

By

B Shantha Asok Kumar

Abstract
Part I: Education in Ancient India and today with a focus on students “Anxiety factor”.
The report explores if the stress factor existed in our Indian education system in the historical past, namely during the vedic, Epic and the Buddhist times by enumerating the philosophy and pattern of education. The study then focuses on the education during the British and post British ages highlighting the trend and philosophy advocated by great personalities like Vivekananda, Gandhi and others. There existed during the early historical times in the Gurukula system of education a close parental relationship between the teacher and the taught, the students had higher spiritual goals to economic ones and they ahd healthy competition to achieve their targets. The Vedas, Epics and later age literature like the sutras and the last century’s historical facts reveal the educational system, which was in clear harmony with the individual’s life. The total focus and change in the system brought about by the British over the Indian pattern of schooling seems to have brought about the degradation of the education after independence have lead to value erosion and stress formation. Finally the study links the findings to the reasons why stress formation. Finally the study links the findings to the reasons why stress exists among school students in modern days in India, namely in cities. The causes for today’s stress amongst students are mainly due to the anxiety over one’s future standing in society, namely the economic fear, the hurdle of exams and the lack of psychological support those who really matter to them. Thus the report is an attempt to understand the drawbacks of our educational system with our ancient system in the background.

Summary and conclusion

Thus we can summarize the state of education in the Vedic age and the early historical period in India as one when knowledge was synonymous with self-awareness,mukhti,raising oneself above this worldly life and being one with nature and the community. The students seemed to have had no excess of mental stress and anxiety and fear. There was no such thing as an exam. There was maximum positive relationship between the taught and the teacher. In fact, it was the golden era when the teaching profession was at the pinnacle commanding maximum respect from one and all and the Brahmins namely the people who taught were placed at the highest level in the society. The position of a Guru was mandatory and the Acharya was on par with the parents. Education was given to all castes, the type caste. Women had access to the same quality education. The teaching was for the individual as according to his level of capacity to absorb and to his needs and duties to society.
The time lapse between the tenth century and pre British times saw the slow progress of quality education but not faulty system. The British supremacy made the standard of education slide down so much that the nineteenth century might be said to be the Dark Age of our Education system. It was just before independence that many great personalities and thinkers, most of who were freedom fighters, who realized the foolishness of removing our system of education from the sound foundation of our age-old culture and dharma struggled to bring back that glory. The struggle still continues. But the utopian goals are today mired with extensive, complicated planning, faulty execution and politicization. Apart from this the country faces the formidable task of always racing to catch up with the advanced science and technology, which has become the priority component of education to exist in the comity of world nations. As we take a step forward confidently of education to exist in the comity of world nations. As we take a step forward confidently we seem to slip two steps backwards because of our over population and poverty in the rural areas and also in the slums of big cities. The right to education for all is still a reality to be fully met. The gap between the planners of education the society the parents and the teachers and the schools have widened so much that the individual student is forgotten. He carries thus the piled up stress caused by others. This stress surfaces as symptoms during the time when he has to achieve. He collapses under this continues stress to achieve, to be successful in life that excess anxiety leads to further psychological problems. People around him, responsible for his learning are well aware of the causes. Even the young student is familiar with the reasons but he is unable to come out of this vicious circle. Perhaps understanding our ancient culture and implementing those values into his life of a student will help him to free himself of the stress.

Part II: Efficacy of integrated approach of yoga module for general anxiety in normal students
This study was undertaken to assess the examination anxiety in normal high school students and to assess the efficacy of yoga on anxiety in students.
The experimental work consisted of three studies on anxiety in normal school students.

Study 1.195 subjects in the age group of 13 years to 17 years (Mean age ±-SD, 14.51±0.90) were selected from a group of students who had come for a personality Development Course (PDC residential camp), for ten days to Prashanthi. This Yoga institute is a scenic campus located at 30 KM south of Bangalore city. Survey of the residual anxiety level was conducted on all students by applying a Questionnaire method, namely Academic Anxiety Scale for children standardized by National Psychological Corporation, Agra, India.
Result: The first study revealed the fact that high school students aged 13 to 17 did carry some residual academic anxiety even after the completion of their annual exam. Mean anxiety score was ± SD, 10.23, ±3.47. (Very Anxious 2%, Anxious 18.5%, moderate 35.4%; less anxious 34%; and very less anxious 9%).One fifth of the students had above average academic anxiety. Their anxiety was targeted towards the final Board Exam in class ten. There was no significant difference in the anxiety levels between the students who would appear for the various Board Exams in class ten as offered by the Central Boards of Exam and the students who would appear for the local, the state Board Exam, at 7.2%, (Independent sample ‘t’ test showed P=0.146)

Study 2. 60 students in the age group of 13 to 17 years students (Mean age ± S/D, 14.98 ± 0.65) were randomly selected from the residential camp for the Experimental study with Yoga intervention. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to the set of 60 high school students. These students were given a rigorous training in integrated yoga module given for all such students in Prashanthi.
Another set of 60 students studying in a single school at Jamshedpur and undergoing a Day camp for ten days just after the final exam was selected for the control study. (Mean age ± SD, 15.33 ± 0.80). These students were having various talents contests, games and tournaments during this period and had no yoga intervention.
A Psychological questionnaire method was applied for both groups. The test given was general Anxiety Scale for Children (GASC), USA 1960, which the students were to answer from memory with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. The scores were added up. This test was given as pre and post yoga for the Experimental group. The same was done for the control Group and on the same days but with no yoga intervention. The yoga intervention included Deep Relaxation Technique, Asanas, Pranayama, (Yogic breathing practices) Trataka (Yogic eye practices) Yogic games, karma yoga (Selfless service activity) devotional sessions and lectures. Besides the students had a serene pollution free atmosphere in the residetntial campus, wholesome vegetarian sattvic food and lived in groups. The control group who was day campers non-residential had no such yogic activity. Regular coaching in games and cultural stage activities were given and competitions held between groups.
Result: The second study on high school students aged 13 to 17 showed that given a yoga module intervention for the days the senior students had reduced levels of anxiety at 13.69% (Paired ‘t’ test showed p=0.001) as compared to students of the control group who did not get this intervention at 6.61% rise in the anxiety level as checked by the same test which showed 9P=0.025).

Study 3. In 2005 April, 300 students between the ages of above 9 years to below 13 years (Mean age ± SD; 11.81 ± 7.84) attended similar three camps at Prashanti. Their students were randomly allotted to two groups. Yoga namely (Experimental) and Physical Activity (Control) in each of the ten days camps. The Yoga group children were given ten days of Integrated Yoga module activities developed by the Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation yoga activities as mentioned above for experiment two. The control group students were given general residential camp activities like games, drill exercises, same campus without interaction with each other. The children of both the groups were tested twice, pre and post camp for their ‘state’ and ‘Trait’ Anxiety levels through a Questionnaire (STAIC).

Summary and Conclusions

State and trait anxieties were measured in this randomized control study on 201 children in the age group of 19-13 years consisting of both girls (75) and boys (126). The effect of an integrated yoga module for personality development was compared with a control non-yoga module. The results showed that the state anxiety reduced in the yoga group better than the control group. The changes in trait anxiety were not significant in both groups.
Comparing the 3 studies – It is clear that trait anxiety in the form of test or exam anxiety does occur in high school students in anticipation of a future Board exam. Yoga does play a positive role in reducing the anxiety and residential camps reduce their anxiety. The group that had yoga intervention showed more reduction.

Keywords:Education , Ancient India,Anxiety factor.