'Fear of poor marks' ended girl's life

The embarrassment of facing her parents after her bad performance in exams is said to have prompted an Indian student in Sharjah to commit suicide.
The 15-year-old girl, a Grade 10 student of a prominent Indian school in Sharjah, jumped to death from her 14th floor apartment in Al Nahda area on Sunday morning.
The police said the girl had taken the extreme step after reaching home from school.
On Monday, it emerged that the girl was upset because she was asked to call her parents to school as she had fared poorly in her exams.
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A family friend told Khaleej Times the police had also retrieved a message she had sent to one of her friends discussing the issue.
"Apparently, she wrote that she did not know how to face her parents as her exams had gone wrong," he said.
"It is not because her parents would shout at her for that. They are not of that nature....But she was ashamed about the embarrassment she will cause when they are called to school," he said.
The school authorities were not available when Khaleej Times tried to reach them for comments.
According to the family source, the shattered family is not blaming the teachers for the incident as they understand that teachers have to take such measures when students perform poorly in studies.
He said the girl was not feeling well and she took permission to go home soon after finishing her Sunday's exam.
She had changed her school uniform and freshened up after reaching home at around 10am.
"She had the habit of going to the balcony to sip her tea...and she did that yesterday also. But, her mother, who was at home, had no clue the next thing she would do is this."
The girl was the eldest and the only daughter among the four children of her parents. Her mother gave birth to the youngest son only a couple of weeks ago.
A colleague of the victim's father said the mother and three sons were sent to their hometown in the south Indian state of Kerala by an afternoon flight on Monday.
The girl's father, who is a senior employee of a prominent Indian supermarket and hypermarket chain, and his friends and colleagues were scheduled to fly with her body on a midnight flight.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com