Dear Students, It's Not The End Of The World: 2 Students End Life Over Low Marks

The CBSE class X results are out with an overall pass percentage of 86.70% – about 4.25% less than 2017. Many people are rejoicing their marks, while others are not. Reports say that two students committed suicide because they failed to score ‘good’ marks.

A 15-year-old girl from Delhi hung herself from the fan at her house allegedly upset over the marks that she secured in the CBSE results that were declared yesterday. The girl, a student of Ryan International School in south Delhi, had scored 70 percent marks. According to reports, she wanted to pursue Science but feared she would not be allowed to due to her score. There was no suicide note.

In another incident, a 17-year-old student hanged himself at his home in Kakrola in West Delhi’s Dwarka after he secured 59 per cent marks in the board exam, reported news agency Press Trust of India, reports NDTV. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead-on-arrival. No suicide note was found.

The Logical Indian Take

Dear students, marks don’t define your future and exams don’t measure your worth as a human being. Getting good marks might make the road easier, but there are more roads and many more destinations.

Arjun Sarin, an academician and child counsellor says, “In my view, I believe the family and society is responsible for this attitude. Instead of making our children understand that failure is also equally acceptable as success, we make them feel that failing is a heinous crime,” reported Free Press Journal.

In fairness, parents and teachers are merely reflecting today’s competitive world. However, the habit of comparison with the proverbial ‘sharma ji ka beta’ or with anyone else needs to be stopped. Teachers and parents should inculcate a feeling of self-worth in children, rather than an inferiority complex.

It is important to understand the individual abilities of a child. Different people have different needs and different areas of specialisation. A person who might not excel in studies might be a great orator or a painter. There are many opportunities out in the real world and it is not restricted to science, engineering and medical. Board exam results might seem the most important thing in the world momentarily, but after a while, you realise it was just another step towards the future. It might be wobbly, but as long you can keep climbing up, you’re moving towards a better tomorrow.

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley