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Published : 25 Aug 2022, 02:47 AM
After she flunked the higher mathematics test, her friends asked how she would face her parents at home. “I’ll show you how,” was her response.
After keeping her bag at home upon return, the ninth grader of Holy Cross Girls High School in Dhaka went straight to the roof of the 10-storey building, where she resided with her family in a flat, and jumped.
She was still in her school uniform.
Bystanders shouted, cried and begged her not to jump as she was attempting to die by suicide.
Locals rushed her to a hospital where she was declared dead.
Having smarted from the initial shock of the incident on Tuesday afternoon, many students and parents on Wednesday pointed the finger at a teacher, saying the teacher deliberately gives poor marks to students who do not take lessons from her privately.
Teachers, on their part, alleged some parents pressure the children excessively.
Hasibuzzaman, a bank official whose niece was a classmate of the victim, said many girls failed the first-semester test on higher mathematics. After speaking to his niece and parents of other students, Hasibuzzaman believes the students were deliberately given poor marks.
The victim failed the second-semester exam on higher mathematics and was discussing the matter with her classmates on Tuesday. Her parents were supposed to be called by the school on Thursday.
“Many students get panicked when they hear that their parents have been called because teachers chide their parents. They discuss these issues among themselves,” Hasibuzzaman said.
“During such a conversation, her classmates asked the girl how she would deal with the pressure she would face at home. The girl said ‘I’ll show you how.’ Sometime later, the news of her death spread on social media.”
The girl’s mother has also blamed the teacher for her death.
The woman said they heard the higher maths teacher had scolded the students for failing. The school authorities also called some parents and behaved roughly with them.
“Maybe the girl was under pressure for these reasons,” the mother said.
The girl’s class teacher Rokeya Begum refuted the allegations. Some media outlets cited parents to say the girl had stood first, but in reality, her results were average, said the teacher.
“She failed higher maths and biology tests in the first semester. In the second semester, she failed the general maths test as well. If the allegation against the higher maths teacher of unfairness was true, the girl would not have failed the other tests,” Rokeya said.
She also claimed the teachers were not rude to the parents. “We try to make them understand the issues. We were alert because so many students of class nine failed. But the question of being rude [to them] doesn’t arise.”
Citing the girls’ classmates, several other teachers said her parents would often rebuke her for doing badly in exams.
One of the classmates said the girl’s father was rude to her and pushed her for good results in exams.
Asked about the matter, her mother said, “After she failed in the first semester exams, her father only once said he would cut off the internet connection if she fails in the second semester.”
The father is a businessman. The girl’s younger brother reads in a madrasa. The family moved to Tejgaon near the school so that she could travel safely.
Although the family have decided not to lodge a case, the government has launched an investigation into the girl’s death.
The Directorate of Inspection and Audit under the education ministry formed a two-strong investigation committee on Wednesday. DIA Deputy Director Rehana Khatun is heading the investigation while Education Inspector Delwar Hossain has been made a member of the committee, said DIA Director Professor Oliullah Md Azmatgir.
"We received a complaint that the student died by suicide because of humiliation after she had failed higher mathematics tests in the first and second terms. And she was made to fail for not taking lessons from the teacher of that subject,” Oliullah said.
The investigators visited the school and got hold of the answer sheets on Wednesday.
“The committee and some of the education board members will re-examine the papers to see if she was deliberately made to fail.”
