Wave of fear passes through teaching community as cops charge principal with abe

Wave of fear passes through teaching community as cops charge principal with abe
Express News Service

May 23: Parents, teachers, preers, principals... they have all been variously accused of giving the need for achievement undue priority. But when the pressure to excel -- even if oppressive -- is equated with abetment to suicide, the police could well have over-reached their brief. No wonder, when Principal Father Sebastian Correia was charged with aiding and abeting the suicide of 15-year-old Chetan Tambde, who hanged himself to death a day before his results were declared recently, it sent a chill through the teaching fraternity.

To charge a principal with a non-bailable offence for simply happening to be the principal of a boy who chose death over failure could only set a bad precedent in the academic community, they feel. Moreover, it turns out, there could have been a constellation of pressures acting in concert on the teenager that could have caused shame and embarassment and coaxed the boy towards the inevitable.

Chetan had hanged himself to death in his Mankhurd residence on April 28, 12 days after he had learnt that he had failed in his Std IX Mathematics exam as the school he attended -- Padua High School at Mankhurd -- like many others had been shown their answer sheets on Open Day.

However, his family alleges that the school places inordinate pressure to excel on students of Std IX in its attempt to secure cent per cent results at the all-important SSC exam. Chetan was one among 20 of 63 students in his class who were not promoted to Std X, they point out, adding that that was unusual for a student who usually notched up an average of 80 per cent till Std VIII. The shock, they add, was probably what pushed him over the edge. Moreover, they wonder whether the boy had been forced to take the fall for refusing to attend private tutorials given by one of the teachers.

Chetan's father Baliram Tambde, who has filed the First Information Report (FIR) against Fr Correia, says his son had in fact told his friends a day before the results were declared that he ``wouldn't be present on April 29 to collect my results'', indicating that his suicide was premeditated. Determined to stop the practice of showing the answer sheets exclusively to the students prior to the declaration of results, Tambde filed the FIR under Section 305 (abetment to suicide) and 34 (acting with common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. He has charged Fr S Correia as well as teacher Sumam Anthony -- whose tutorials Chetan did not attend -- and another teacher Mohammed Amanulla under both sections.

But persons close to the family raise a different set of questions. Why didn't the teenager tell his parents of his impending failure and allow it to fester for 12 days? What was he afraid of, they wonder. Counters Baliram Tambde: ``Even if I had an inkling of what was going on, the suicide could have been averted.''

Chetan was the only son of a man who had experienced extreme ostracisation family members say, explaining that Baliram Tambde's parents were both leprosy patients. Perhaps this placed an added burden on Chetan to excel, which added to his anxieties.

However, insisting on blaming the school, Tambde told Newsline: ``When I went to Rajawadi Hospital to collect my son's body, I telephoned the principal to inform him of this incident and to inquire about the results. Instead of sympathising, Correa bluntly said `Mar gaya to mar gaya, hum result phone mein nahin batayenge','' alleges Tambde. He adds that police have also recorded statements from students who say they had been pressurised by the school.

And so the allegations continue. In their wake, though, is a harried principal charged with abetment to suicide, a grieving family and a result-oriented education system that is often blinded to the students' best interests.

All Fr S Correia, who is in police custody, says is that he cannot figure out why the police have slapped these particular charges against him. ``It will set a bad precedent,'' he told Newsline today.