|
Girl commits suicide after getting an SMS
Story
| quote: | AN Indian teenager killed herself after receiving a mobile phone text message saying she had failed her school leaving exams, although she had actually passed, a report said today.
The 17-year-old girl hanged herself yesterday morning after getting the SMS giving her the wrong information, the Hindustan Times reported.
The girl's parents had been out attending yoga classes with their second daughter when the girl committed suicide in the central Indian town of Indore, the report said.
Results of the school-leaving exams of over 250,000 students began being announced yesterday, with cellphone companies for a small fee offering to provide results via SMS to those students giving their roll numbers.
It was uncertain whether the company was at fault for sending the incorrect message or whether the girl had made a mistake in typing down her roll number, the report said.
Pressure from parents and peers on students to score high marks in the exams is immense and each year dozens across the country kill themselves when they find they have failed.
Schools have now begun offering counselling for depressed and nervous teenagers, while the Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the exam, set up an e-counselling helpline in March.
The department's director G. Balasubramanian said the centre has been receiving 50-60 calls a day, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
"This is our way of reaching out to the students and telling them that we care. It is our duty to address the problems of students," he told the news agency.
Of the 250,000 results announced yesterday, it was found that girls, who achieved a pass rate of 94 per cent, had done better than boys, who could only muster a pass rate of 88 per cent, the report said. |
|
