Exam fear, poor scores take toll, 6 students end life

Fear of exams and poor result scores have led to six cases of suicide by students in the state capital in a span of three months.
Such students who took the extreme step out of fear or in shame belong to different age groups.

On February 22, Durgesh, a Bsc (II) student, hanged himself after failing in mathematics, while on February 19, Juhi, a student of BA (II), had ended her life after getting below average marks in economics.
Earlier, on February 10, class X student Himanshu Patel had hanged himself in fear of physics exam. Besides, one Anuj, Shivam and Monu had also ended their life after failing.
In a different case, a class XII student staged his own kidnapping in fear ahead of the physics exam on February 16.
Experts said that students take drastic steps due to fear of parents and cut-throat competition. Sometimes, the child is humiliated in front of others and is engulfed by feeling of shame.
Member of Child Welfare Committee, Sangeeta Sharma, said that students are struck by anxiety, fear and stress in exam time. “Parents must realise that every child is unique and mere obtaining good scores in exam is no guarantee of success. A child must be allowed to pursue subject of his choice and interest,” said Sharma.
City-based psychologist PK Khatri acknowledged that fear of ‘low marks’ drives students of all age groups to commit suicide. Counselling and making students study subjects of their choice first and then slowly asking them to study hard subjects proves helpful, he said.
Lucknow University’s psychology department has started a ‘Student counselling cell and psychological clinic’ for students during exams. LU exams start in first week of March.
Assistant professor, psychology department, Lalit Kumar Singh told TOI, “We come across 3-4 cases of stressed students. The number has risen in the last two months. We conduct free counselling. We have a WhatsApp number 9456022781, anybody can approach us,” said Singh.