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Boy, 11, committed suicide over exam results: State Coroner

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(PHOTO: Yahoo Newsroom)

An 11-year-old boy’s death – from falling 17 storeys out his bedroom window on the day he was meant to show his parents his mid-year examination results – has been ruled a suicide.

According to local media reports, State Coroner Marvin Bay declared the death a “deliberate act of suicide” and said that the child appeared to have faced pressure from his parents to achieve a certain standard of exam results.

The court heard that on 18 May, the day of the incident, the boy had been due to show his parents his exam results, which were below the 70-mark standard set by his mother. Instead of doing so, the Primary 5 pupil locked himself in his bedroom.

His parents later realised that their son’s bedroom door was locked and opened it with a spare key, but found him missing. He was subsequently found at the foot of the Fernvale Link block and pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics at 7am.

Sharp decline in school results

The court also heard that in previous years the boy had maintained an average of 70 marks in his exams. This time around, however, he had failed two out of five subjects and barely passed the remaining three.

Pupils transitioning from Primary 4 to Primary 5 generally experience a dip in results as the change in exam format prepares them for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), the court heard.

The boy’s mother said that she would “lightly” cane her son on his palm when his exam results fell below 70 marks and that these actions did not leave him unhappy for long. She described him as a “happy-go-lucky” child, while the principal and four teachers from the boy’s school described him as being quiet and without any disciplinary issues.

‘Mounting anxiety’

Based on what was heard during the inquiry, State Coroner Bay said that the boy had cooked up a “fictitious account” of his grades and had faced “mounting anxiety” as the day approached when he would have to reveal the actual results to his parents. He had received his results prior to the day of his death and had told his mother they were “average”.

Bay said, “(The boy) appeared to have difficulty in understanding, and coming to terms with his precipitous fall in his grades. He appeared fearful of revealing his poor grades to his parents…

"In his desperation, he had woven a fictitious account of his grades to preserve an impression that he was coping well, and attaining grades that conformed to their pre-set expectations…. He had tragically taken his own life, rather than face the remainder of the day.”

The State Coroner also said that a questionnaire has been developed for police officers to fill in when interviewing family members and witnesses in youth suicide cases. This is a first step towards studying and understanding youth suicides, he said.