In a survey of high school students in England conducted by the Human Wisdom Project, 72% of students said that they were stressed, 57% reported being anxious, and 81% said their stress and anxiety significantly impacted their learning. This suggests that only 20% of the students are fully absorbing the material being taught to them in their lessons and this will impact their educational attainment.

The findings were presented at the HumanWisdom global meeting on Reducing Stress in Education on Dec. 2nd and 3rd. Teachers from 11 countries participated. Several educators agreed that the findings reflected their own experience, and said urgent steps were needed to address the problem. The meeting explored the several internal and external causes of stress, which is just the difference between how things are, and how we want them to be. External factors included exams, friendships, and families. The internal drivers of stress include conditioning, comparison, and the reactive mind. These usually operate in the background, hidden from our awareness.

This is a wake-up call for government and educators everywhere. While it is well known that teenagers experience high levels of stress and anxiety, the impact of this on learning is less well known. If this data is replicated nationwide it represents a significant barrier to learning that needs to be urgently addressed.

Dr. Manoj Krishna, director of the Human Wisdom Project said ‘Preventing stress and anxiety is a priority and could boost learning. We assume that stress and anxiety are caused by external factors, but it is in fact a reaction from your thinking to the external challenge. A deeper understanding of yourself and how your mind works helps you access your own wisdom, which can build resilience and help you meet life’s challenges with calm. This could easily be woven into the current curriculum and would be life-changing for students’.

The Human Wisdom Project has developed the HumanWisdom web-app, a simple guide to help students understand themselves deeply and access their own wisdom. It has 59 modules including stress, anxiety, relationships, anger, happiness, and communications skills, and is suitable for students 16 years and older. The ideas are simple to understand, but their impact can be profound. For more information, visit humanwisdom.me.