‘We never thought he would take his life': 18 students kill themselves after failing exams

'We could not believe that he failed in maths, his favourite subject. He became withdrawn and refused to eat. But we never thought he would take his life'

(Unicef/Al-Issa)

Eighteen students died by suicide in one week after they failed their exams in India, according to local media reports.

The Telangana state government has demanded all failed papers be remarked following allegations that technical faults failed thousands of students in error.

Among those who died was G Nagendra, a student of Narayana College. Nagendra hanged himself at his home in Kushaiguda after he failed in Mathematics, the Indian Express reported.

His father G Vivekananda said he was a good student and was floored by his results.

“We could not believe that he failed in maths, his favourite subject. He became withdrawn and refused to eat. But we never thought he would take his life,” he said.

V Vennela of Nizamabad, who had failed in two subjects, consumed pesticide on the night of April 18 and died the next morning, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Following widespread protests by parents and student groups, the state government has ordered the test results of over 300,000 failed students to be recounted.

The president of the Telangana Parents’ Association, N Narayana, told reporters that the firm tasked with processing the results – Globarena Technologies – had initially admitted there were glitches but said they had been rectified.

“Now it appears the whole process was full of mistakes. Unfortunately, due to these mistakes, students who failed are taking their lives,” he said.

The protests gained momentum after one pupil, G Navya, who got zero in their Telugu language exams, applied for re-evaluation and had the score revised to 99.

The state Education Minister, G Jagdish Reddy, said: “If mistakes did occur, we will identify those behind them and punish them.”

Globarena’s CEO, VSN Raju, however, denied the allegations: “We did not commit any large-scale blunder as is being alleged,” he said.