THE suicide of Aritri Adhikari, a ninth-grade student of Viquarunnisa Noon School and College (VNSC), following the school authorities’ humiliation to her guardians is pathetic and shocking. Some teachers of the school summoned Aritri’s parents and rebuked them for allegedly using the mobile phone by Aritri during examination on Social Science subject that led the teenage to commit suicide on Sunday. We observe that, the school teachers were too rude with the teenager by threatening her to issue transfer certificate. Globally when understanding teenage psychology is getting more and more attention, ours teenagers live in agony, disrespect, humiliation, harassment and downbeat. The suicide could be averted if the school authorities were kind and the parents would get opportunity to mentor their daughter. This suicidal death should be a whistle-blow to modify teachers’ behaviour with pupils and teacher-student relation.
The teachers asked her to bring her guardians next day to the school and when they arrived on Monday, they were made to wait for over an hour at the gate. Later, they were allowed to meet the Vice-Principal of the school who insulted them. The endured parents then met Principal where they were insulted again. Aritri ran away from the Principal’s chamber and hanged herself from a ceiling fan at her residence.
The treatment of the school teachers with the Aritri is simply unjust, even if she cheats in exams. At adolescent age, the youngsters undergo transitional stage from childhood to adulthood. They go through disorientation and discovery in this transitional period. At this time, the issues of independence and self-identity get highest priority to them. Cheating in school – on homework, on papers, on tests, on records — is not uncommon to a large number of teenagers. Some physiologists term the cheating tendency of teenagers as their rebellious power against system run by elders. In developed countries, school authorities treat the rebellious teenagers very carefully and support them mentally.
We like to thank the Education Ministry for taking the issue seriously by formulating a probe body to uncover the fact. The school authorities also have formulated another one. Hopefully, the probe bodies will provide necessary suggestions to incorporate teachers training module how to deal with teenaged school students side by side upholding the social values.
