By Dang Samson Garcia
CALOOCAN City 1st District Rep. Oscar Malapitan filed a resolution urging the Commission on Higher Education to prohibit all higher education institutions from allowing, setting, institutionalizing, or imposing the conduct of any students’ activity within or outside school campuses on Sundays.
In his House Resolution 1262, Malapitan stressed Sunday is regarded as ‘Family Day’.
The lawmaker expressed alarm on the increasing number of Filipino students afflicted with academic burnout conditions.
“Academic burnout is a negative emotional, physical and mental reaction to prolonged and excessive study that results in exhaustion, frustration, lack of motivation and reduced ability in school. It is a phenomenon that students face through college that may extend even in their professional life,” Malapitan said in his resolution.
He also cited studies which showed burnout syndrome in college students is largely responsible for emotional exhaustion, cynicism, academic inefficacy, and is closely related with general distress, poor educational peformance, college dropout, suicidal ideation including substance abuse.
It also causes real, psychosomatic problems such as headaches, insomia, anxiety disorder and depression.
Malapitan cited study during the course of the Covid19 pandemic in a university in Norther Luzon to determine the burnout risks of around 245 student participants.
The results showed participants have moderate to high risks for burnout, especially among female students, for which interventional measures is imperative to combat their present mental health problems.
The lawmaker stressed one step to attenuate the impact of academic burnout is to liberate college students from any and all school related activities on any Sunday and to devote the said day of the week to make quality time with family, enjoy the comfort of home, or spend the day for worship and other religious services to satisfy the students’ mental, moral and spiritual needs.