Student suicide: Onus lies on institutions, teachers

Umar Sherif | NT

Bengaluru: The suicide of Aditya Prabhu, 19, a student of the PES University has prompted a severe backlash by his parents, activists, and other students’ parents as well, against the varsity, demanding an explanation.

While the incident came as a shocker to the public despite students these days being aware of facing failures and fears, it becomes necessary that institute owners and teachers are educated on reasons for suicides among students.

Aditya committed suicide allegedly after he was caught using his mobile inside the exam hall. However, there is no proof that he tried to copy in the exam. “Students are aware of facing failures and dealing with suicidal thoughts.

However, it is the other way around. Educational institution owners and teachers are the ones who need to be educated to not force students to grow in an exam-oriented mind and blame them for failures, making them feel insecure and commit suicide.

They are to be blamed and not the students”, said Niranjanaradhaya, academician. He said the teachers and institutions are focusing too much on the exam results and that must be stopped.

“Stop victim blaming and look at the behavior of the invigilator in this case. The words used by the invigilator show the lack of awareness among them on how to deal with the students”, he added.

Further, the academician has also said the institutions must adopt a new way to teach and test the students to prevent any such incidents in the future.

“At a time when the world is moving faster with the open book test method, expecting students to perform well in all the subjects is baseless. Find new ways to test and don’t expect them to answer everything they studied for years in mere three hours”, he said.

Abi Shankari, a renowned psychiatrist from Chennai said suicides among the students have become common as they are highly sensitive. Students are highly sensitive and they must have been given counselling and awareness from their lower classes to avoid suicides”, she told News Trail.

She also said the parents are negligible but added they must also teach their children about the good values to face challenges in life, which helps in preventing committing suicide.

“Most teachers are focused on marks, which has to change as it takes a toll on students,” she added.