Odisha BSE Class 10 exam: 3 students commit suicide over poor results

Three students, including two girls, allegedly committed suicide over their poor performance in matriculation or Class 10 board examination conducted by Odisha’s Board of Secondary Education (BSE) within 24 hours after the results were declared on Monday, police said.

Two suicides were reported from Jajpur district and the third from Ganjam in a string of deaths and reports of mounting stress among students.

Lakshmipriya Mohanta of Kanijira village in Jajpur district hanged herself in her home soon after the results were declared. Her family members rushed her to a hospital where doctors pronounced her brought dead. Police have registered a case and sent her body for a post-mortem examination.

Padmalochan Mallik of Ratalanga village, also in Jajpur district, consumed poison after he got poor grades in the exam. Mallik was expecting A1 (91%+) or A2 (81%+) but secured D Grade (41%+). His family members rushed him to the district headquarters hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Lily Swain of Narendrapur village in Ganjam district died in a hospital on Tuesday, a day after she drank poison after scoring poor marks in the matric exam.

Experts say youngsters find it difficult to cope with failure in exams and careers and neither families nor other social institutions offer adequate support.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2015 data shows that one student commits suicide every hour in India. In 2015, 8,934 students committed suicide and in the five years before that 39,775 killed themselves.

India has one of the world’s highest suicide rates for youth aged 15 to 29, according to a 2012 Lancet report, which illustrated the need for urgent intervention.

The Class 10 exams were written by 590,363 students and 428,000 candidates or 76.23%, including 222,000 girls and 216,000 boys, managed to clear the exam this year. There was a decline of 10% from last year when 86.37% students passed the exam.

Odisha school and mass education secretary PK Mohapatra warned of departmental action against teachers and headmasters of the schools where the results were not up to the mark.