High expectations from parents and pressure to succeed are taking a toll on young examinees.

After stories of success of students yesterday, reports of succumbing to pressure of failure appeared today.

Debamrita Ghosali (16), daughter of Indrajit Ghosal of Parnasree in Behala, hanged herself in her room at 7.30 pm on Thursday. Additional SP, South 24-Parganas, D P Singh said Debamrita was a student of Sarada Vidya Mandir. She had failed in two subjects in the Madhyamik examination.

Failure to clear the exams might have led her to take the extreme step, said the police.

In a related incident, Ankit Kumar Mahato (16) is missing for the last 36 hours, after he failed to clear the Madhyamik Examination.

His family members at 35A, Parbati Ghosh Lane in the Girish Park area are hoping for his return, but there is no trace of the teenager as yet. A student of Sri Vishudhanand Saraswati Vidyalaya, Ankit had failed last year in both the Science and the Humanities group. This year, despite some improvement, he failed to clear the Science group. His family members saw him last on May 28, when he left his house to check his results.

The family came to know that Ankit had failed only when he did not return.

Neha Mahato, elder sister of Ankit, told The Indian Express that Ankit was taking regular tuitions. His family members said Manoj Singh, a friend of Ankit who is from the same school, was with him when he was last spotted.

Manoj has told the family that Ankit jumped off the Howrah Bridge yesterday evening.

Manoj initially did not divulge this to anyone but later he told the police about the incident. Manoj, too, failed in the Madhyamik Examination this year. O-C of North Port Police station, D Ghosh said the police have conducted a search in the river to locate the boy, but nothing has been found so far.