Alas, another young life might have been lost recently due to academic pressures. A Primary 5 pupil was found dead at the foot of his Sengkang HDB block on May 18 — the day when he was supposed to show his failed exam papers to his parents.
The New Paper reported that the 11-year-old boy found out he failed his math and Higher Chinese papers prior to that day.
His 45-year-old mother believed that the boy had killed himself over his exam results by jumping from the bedroom window of the 17th-storey flat. The mother had enforced a system of punishment for the boy — he would be caned lightly on his palm if he did not reach an average score of 70 marks across all subjects. For every mark below 70, she would hit him once.
Understandably, he was visibly upset when he received the results for both subjects he failed. He scored 20.5 out of 100 for mathematics, and only 12 marks for his Higher Chinese exam. That’s a lot of caning to swallow.
His mother wasn’t unfair, of course — she would reward him well if he performed exceptionally in his papers. She would also go through the examination papers first to see if they were difficult, and if they were, he would not be caned.
It was on May 18 that he was supposed to bring home the exam papers for his parents. That morning, his father noticed that he was taking longer than usual to get ready for school. Realising that he had locked his bedroom door, the mother entered the room using the spare key but couldn’t find the boy inside.
The boy’s sister then saw him lying on the grass patch at the foot of the block, still in his school uniform. The police were called in as the mother turned unconsolable and the father became distraught in the aftermath of the incident.
It’s yet to be decided if it indeed was a suicide case, but the father believes that his son may have accidentally fallen to his death. State Coroner Marvin Bay will deliver his findings later today.
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