STUDENT SUICIDE

by Goolbai Gunasekara

Has no one ever wondered what could possibly be in the mind of a suicide just before the fatal and intensely personal decision is taken to pull the trigger, jump, swallow poison or carry out whatever the gruesome chosen mode of death may be? My interest today focuses on student suicide which has been much in the news of late.

Just recently the suicides following the release of the exam results received much publicity in the press. The first to be blamed was the Education Department – a popular whipping boy for all sorts of ills. For once I do not blame the Education Department. Or even the system of education in the country. These student suicides are the result of the overwhelming feelings of public humiliation and despair to which the poor students are subjected by angry parents, teachers and principals of schools to say nothing of the pity (or scorn) of their peers.

It is not the fault of the pressure of exams. It is the fault of the “exam- culture” of the country, indeed of most of Asia which makes academic failure a yardstick by which to judge the child while any educationist knows (or should know) that such results are by no means indicative of a candidate’s potential. (Winston Churchill failed almost every exam in school and see where he ended up.)

First let’s deal with the School’s reaction to the exam results.

The principal gets the results which are immediately released to the awaiting lot of students and their teachers. Distinctions are counted. Children with 8, 9, 10, 11 and even 12 As complacently

receive the praise of their principal and teachers. Teachers count their own successes as they compare which teacher has the best results. Of course students compare their results with each other. Eventually the results are known to the entire school for everybody to talk about. The successes are lauded to the skies while the failures are either vilified or ignored. Then the parents take over. Phones are tied up for hours. Their own humiliation is often taken out on the poor child. Comparisons are made, especially if another candidate (notably a relative) in the family has done brilliantly. Obviously, many parents overdo the breast-beating part of it since in extreme cases suicide results. Driven to breaking point the young person sees no future in the inky blackness of the road ahead and feels that life is ended because he has failed to pass the OL exam.

Asian culture will always glorify academic success. Nothing can be done to alter that so let me suggest a way in which we could mitigate the feelings of total failure and despair felt by teenagers who do not have the maturity to deal with what they feel is the end of the world.

Results are a private matter. There is no need for all the world to know them. ALL International Board Exam results are given online with a number which ONLY the candidate can access. If the exam is a school’s public exam obviously the principal is sent a full list to be analyzed by him and the staff. These are not made public except in the case of students whose results are so good they have no objection to any publicity. The point is that the whole matter can be handled privately and one would hope that both principal and staff can keep their own counsel.

Humiliation, scorn, embarrassment are at a minimum. If a student gets SEVEN ‘F’s’ he only needs to say “I didn’t do too well”. If he gets NINE ‘A’s’ his school and his parents will practically go on TV! Their moments of glory are well deserved. But a young person being humiliated is not.

As a former teacher I am able to give hundreds of examples of children who were mediocre or even downright poor in academics up to the Advanced Level but who got into Universities where they did outstandingly well. Late developers are more common than we think but in Sri Lanka they are not given a chance.

Students who can afford to go abroad seize the opportunity of an education which looks further than OL results. Students with two ‘C’s’ and a ‘D’ can get into a British or American College but they will not get any aid unless their grades merit it. Of course they have to perform well if they want a degree at the end.

Going back to Churchill. Hating Latin and the Classics he saw no point in studying them. Studying the Latin word for `Table’, “Mensa, Mensam” etc. he asked why one word would not suffice and was told that if he needed to speak to the table and say “O Table” he would need to know all the declensions.

“But I never speak to a table,” said the young Winston in honest bewilderment.

Finding that the popular education of the time was wasted on him he started to READ. While other were gaining glory in Latin and Greek he learnt the English language so thoroughly that its mastery made him one of the most brilliant speakers the British Parliament has ever had.

Let Society take the blame for young suicides. Hopefully the Department of Education will try the methods I have suggested which may greatly reduce the number of future tragedies among exam students.