CHENNAI: Pained by a spate of suicide by students owing to poor performance in examinations, the Madras High Court has suggested a permanent mechanism to offer counselling in educational institutions.

Justice K.N. Basha, quashing abetment charges against a lecturer, said parents had to play a leading role in instilling courage and self-confidence among their wards. Every school or educational institution should have a counselling system to enable students to face the challenges in their career.

He said educational institutions should provide counselling both before and after examinations to encourage positive thinking among students. Two per cent of the suicides every year were linked to failure in examinations. Of the 2,283 suicides, about 68 per cent took place in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Mr. Justice Basha flayed parents for being overanxious and overambitious. "Till eighth standard, students are encouraged to participate in a variety of extra-curricular activities. All these are eliminated once they reach Class X or XII, and they are forced to do nothing but study." Comparison with their peers, criticism from within the family, over expectation and mark-based evaluation method were to blame, he said.As part of preventive strategies, grading of marks, multiple evaluation and post-examination counselling for students, parents and teachers should be done, he said. All schools must have a provision for counsellors or at least a trained teacher to handle the issue.

The Judge was passing orders on a petition filed by K. Ravikumar, a lecturer of Annamalai University, to quash criminal proceedings initiated against him.

Mr. Ravikumar had awarded 20 marks to S. Irwin Pyari Abivarma, a second year B.Tech student at Pondicherry Engineering College. A depressed Irwin committed suicide, leaving behind a suicide note seeking "some solution for the careless and reckless valuation of papers by teachers."

After the victim scored 54 and 61 marks respectively in two revaluations, his mother filed the present complaint to prosecute the lecturer for "having abetted the suicide."

Mr. Justice Basha said there was no wilful act or intentional commission of offence by the lecturer. While teachers should be responsible and careful during evaluation, students should not resort to extreme steps on getting low marks.

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