I heard in the news that five students committed suicide after failing School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination this week. It is apparent that the wrong portrayal of SLC, the final level examination of secondary school system has led to loss of young lives.

Parents and teachers pressure the students to obtain higher marks in the exam. Consequently, students are bound to perform well in the exam by hook or by crook. Lack of proper counseling lead them to take fatal decisions when they fail. ‘Iron Gate’, the popular term for SLC merely scares the students and leaves negative impact on their psychology. In fact, SLC has been extremely overstated.

Most of the schools in the urban areas run extra classes and coaching classes for 10^th standard students. They ban them from extracurricular activities and merely focus to mug up books. It is crystal clear that guardians and teachers are nurturing their kids in a wrong way. It is vitally important to give higher attention on morality than marks.

Generally, students gaining higher marks are considered to be good in our society. There is no doubt in it but what if the student gain higher marks with unethical undertakings like cheats? It is absolutely necessary to show them the path to become good human beings rather than just gaining good scores in the school exams. People should be weighed with morals rather than marks.

There are many famous people that performed poor in their schooldays but turned successful later. Big names in the world like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, Oliver Stone, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg and many others did not do well in school. But today people sing their success and fame.

Dear students, you ought to know that failing SLC is not the end of the world; you are yet to see the wider world and prove yourself.