Exam pressure forces class X boy to kill self

CHENNAI: The pressure to perform well in school, real or perceived, has claimed another victim, a day after a class IX student stabbed his teacher to death in a city sch­ool. On Friday, a 16-year-old schoolboy in Peravallur on Chennai’s outskirts was found dead—in what seems a case of suicide, after he was allegedly unable to cope with pressure from his parents to score high in the class 10 exams.Police said Lokesh, the son of an operator-level staff of a private automobile company, who lives at DKM Colony, Peravallur and was studying in class X of a school in Kolathur, did not open his room door on Friday morning. Suspecting something amiss, his parents broke open the door and found, to their horror, their son hanging from the ceiling of his room.Police sources said the boy was facing pressure at home to secure a state rank. The parents had allegedly beaten up Lokesh when he failed in his exams in the past and locked him up in a room with his books until he was able to give correct answ­ers to questions on his subjects. “The boy feared how he would cope with the class 10 exams, and that led him to take the extreme step. He did not leave any suicide note. He had study leave on Thursday and was at home when his mother had gone out. His father saw his body first on Fri­day,” a police official said.