Telangana Intermediate results: 19 students commit suicide within a week

At least 19 students have committed suicide in Telangana during last one week due to failure in the Intermediate Examinations, according to media reports. This is said to be the highest number of suicides by Intermediate students in recent years with the opposition parties blaming the goof-ups by the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TBIE) for the spate of suicides. 

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has ordered he concerned authorities to do a free-of-cost re-evaluation of papers for all the students who failed in the exams. For other students, re-verification will be done with the prescribed fee and as per the existing rules and regulations. 

Voicing his concern over the suicides, the Chief Minister appealed to the students to desist from taking the extreme step. "I felt extremely unhappy and deeply hurt over such incidents. Suicides of students is most unfortunate. Intermediate education is not the whole life. Failing in examination does not amount to failing in the life. Life is precious. There will be plenty of opportunities," he said. 

He advised the students to stand up in the life and be courageous. "If you commit suicide, you will be leaving behind lot of sorrow to the parents. I appeal to every student not to commit suicide," he said. In 2018, six suicides were reported after the results were announced. While there were no such suicides in 2015 and 2016, one Intermediate first-year student killed himself by jumping in front of a train in 2017. 

This year, the Telangana Intermediate Examination results were announced on April 18. Around 9.74 lakh students appeared for the intermediate examination. Out of these 3.28 lakhs failed. 

(Inputs from IANS)