Pathetic!
A boy aged 16 hanged himself to death and left his suicide note as the answer sheet of his Chemistry paper.
DUBAI // The parents of a 16-year-old pupil who hanged himself were finally shown a copy of the exam paper that he wrote his suicide note on.
Abhimanyu Sadasivan on February 25 wrote his Chemistry exam paper but was more of a suicide letter, five days before he hanged himself.
He was telling of the pressures of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) system at the Indian High School Dubai.
Abhimanyu hoped that his death will force CBSE to ensure that hte pressure of rote learning would be changed!
“It was his farewell to us and told how he loved us,” said his mother, Ambika Sadasivan. “He said the paper was only for us parents to see.
“I do feel really sad that he did not approach us or speak to us about what he went through. Ours was a happy home. He was a lovely boy.
“It was a very bad decision on his part but a mother cannot be angry with her son.”
The school has so far not given the family a copy of the note, said Mrs Sadasivan, but said it would do so at a later date.
“We believe they will live up to the promise,” she said.
“They told us that they could give a copy only to the police or the KHDA [Knowledge and Human Development Authority],” Mrs Sadasivan said. “We wanted to know the reasons why he took this step. We hold nothing against the school for what happened.”
She said reading the full, seven-page note.
“My son had written: ‘The CBSE system is based on mugging [rote]. Education should be about understanding and applying your knowledge. My death should be a lesson and a reason for the system to change’,” Mrs Sadasivan said.
“My son had a pretty high IQ but he could never learn by mugging. He had to understand what he was studying. He liked reading and writing a lot.
“They are so young when they have to choose whether to opt for the commerce or science stream. They don’t know what pressures they could face later.”
The boy’s parents had been called to the school on the day of their son’s death, three hours after he failed to turn up for a maths exam, to be shown his note.
The principal told them that they were waiting for Abhimanyu to come to school to question him about the note!
He had written: “This is not my chemistry paper but the last exam I am writing. I am so bored of my life. I don’t want to live any more. When I am dead, I do not want my body to be taken to India.”
Lesson for all the parents and schools.
Do not force the children into these kind of schools that encourage only rote learning and seek marks as the only way to gauge the children.
Why blame the schools? I get close to 50% parents who seek schools that is only academic and want admission into such schools at any cost. Sometimes the cost is the life of an innocent child!