Be Human : Parents and Schools

Reading the morning newspaper daily is an old habit of mine. But today I couldnt read through.
The front page was splattered with the headline of a teenager ending her life brutally in a posh Kolkata English medium school. Why?
She couldn't take the academic pressure any more. Anxious that she wouldn't qualify in entrance exams, she chose to take a gruesome way out.
Slit her wrists and stuffed her own face into a polythene packet.
My question is how many more sacrifices will be required at the altar of marks and academic performance?
When will parents wake up? And stop pressurizing their wards to attain impossible goals? What happened to good old innocent childhood?
Do children have to bear the cross of unrealistic expectations throughout their growing years? Just so that parents and schools can gloat over their achievements?
What is success and how do we measure it in such narrow terms? Why don't we teach our children to accept failure, to appear vulnerable?
Why don't we just say "It's all right, child. Everything's going to be okay"? I have been a victim of this damaging education system, so it hurts me when I see the story repeating itself in some other child's life. Please repair the Indian education system and counsel the parents please. Let no more lives be lost.

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