Dubai: It’s February and Grades 10 and 12 board exams are around the corner. Students are busy with their studies. The atmosphere is tense as the pressure has started building up. On one hand, you have parents and teachers motivating students, while on the other hand, you have parents telling their kids to score almost 100 per cent marks in the exams.
Come March and the exams are on. But wait a minute. A student with roll number 123456 has not showed up for his first exam.
Parents are unaware of the fact that their child hasn’t reached the exam centre. On informing them they sense something more horrifying than the exams. Investigations reveal the student has committed suicide.
Shattered
The parents are shattered and broken. But why did the child end his life? Was it suicide or murder? Let’s find out.
The student gave up his life because he couldn’t handle the pressure of exams and the fear of not performing or reaching up to ‘pre-set’ expectations of the ‘world’. Who brought on this pressure? Parents, (de) motivating teachers or society? As per the definition of murder, which says “killing of one person by another”, you have to decide who is to be blamed. I mean no offence to any parent or teacher. I have a message to every student, parent and teacher. Exams are not the end of the world. Failing just means that your marks are lying undiscovered in some hidden talent and most importantly, suicide is not a solution.
Whenever you have such a thought in your mind, visualise the smiles you brought to everyone’s face. Parents should know that exams come and go, but your child is a gift. And finally, teachers should know they are the ones who build a child academically and personally.
- Sagar P. Chandiramani is an ex-student of Our Own High School and Heriot-Watt University
