A report by the Ministry of Health confirms that school children are suffering from mental distress due to various social factors they face.
Dr. Lakmini Magodaratne, Acting Director of the Directorate of Mental Health, said that this information was revealed in a survey conducted last year.
“A school health survey was conducted in Sri Lanka in 2024. When we examined the data of our children, we found that 22.4% of the students felt lonely. Among children aged 13 to 17, 11.9% said they had difficulty sleeping due to emotional distress. About 18% showed symptoms of depression. About 7.5% did not have close friends.
25% of the children said they had no one to talk to about their inner problems. This means that 75% of the children do not have a close confidant. Can this really happen in Sri Lanka?
Our children seem to be under a lot of pressure. Children experience the same stress as adults. Various social factors and stressors can contribute to this,” said Dr. Lakmini Magodaratne, addressing a media briefing organized by the Health Promotion Bureau.
Addressing the media briefing, Dr. Sajeewa Amarasinghe, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health, revealed that the country currently has an average of eight suicides per day.
“In 1996, Sri Lanka had the second highest suicide rate in the world. That was 47 per 100,000 people. Since then, with the decisions taken in collaboration with the Presidential Commission, the rate has reduced significantly. Now it is down to 15 per 100,000, with about 3,500 suicides reported annually. In the last two to three years, the numbers have not increased further. On average, there are eight suicides per day,” he said.