Computer software glitch lead to the suicide of 20 students

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Twenty students have committed suicide in India this past week after the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) announced their exam scores, which Khaleejtimes reported have been marked in controversy after there were discrepancies in the results.

Nearly 1 million students took the exams between February and March, and nearly 350,000 failed, causing widespread protests from parents, student groups and political parties.

One student named Sirisha was failing biology and set herself on fire at her home in the Narayanpet district on Saturday after her parents went out to the fields, according to Khaleejtimes.

According to the parents, what caused students to commit suicide was an error on the part of the software solutions firm, Globarena Technologies Private Limited, which had been hired by Telagana BIE to develop software for processing admissions, pre-examination and post-examination results.

Source: 20 Indian students commit suicide after exam results

I guess from my viewpoint, the computer glitch explanation is a hypothesis at this point. If it was a glitch, it definitely should be tracked down, exposed and corrected. But then again having a 1/3 failure rate of all exam takers seems like they really set the bar way too high. It seems like a systemic problem.

Error or no error, surely what ultimately caused these students to take their lives must be some kind of extraordinary pressure to pass these exams at all costs. A good education is a valuable thing, but academic attainment should surely not be venerated to the point that one feels one's life to be worthless without it. Lest anyone jump to conclusions; parents have lost sons and daughters, and they have my sympathy, as do the many students who's torments are not reported. I don't mean to point my finger at anyone - there are undoubtedly many social and economic factors to be considered.