The suicide of a high school girl in Shahrak Gharb brings the number of students who have taken their own lives in the past year to 18. The director general of the Ministry of Education's office admits that counseling units are performing poorly.
According to a report by "Khabar Online" yesterday (June 8), a 16-year-old girl hanged herself after her final exam in her second year of high school.
According to the report, the girl hanged herself in the school bathroom after taking a literature exam and taking a souvenir photo with her classmates and teachers.
This is the 18th suicide attempt resulting in death among students since June of last year. There are no statistics available on the number of people who have attempted suicide but survived during this period.
Five students commit suicide in one month
Yesterday's incident in Shahrak Gharb was the fifth reported suicide among students since May 6 and the third in Tehran.
Two fatal suicides in 2016 occurred in Mashhad in the last days of May, and the victims were girls aged 12 and 18.
Depression, sadness, and nervous stress resulting from failure in the national university entrance exam and academic failure have been cited as causes of student suicide.
Regarding the reason for the suicide of the 12-year-old Mashhad girl, some media outlets have reported, quoting her father: "This student was expelled from school for a week for bringing an item that she was not supposed to bring to school, and she committed suicide out of fear of punishment from her father."
Increased depression and mental disorders
Following the increase in suicide attempts among students and the media coverage of news in this regard, discussions have also been raised about the shortcomings of the Ministry of Education and the shortage and weakness of counseling units in schools.
Mohammad Fadel, the director general of the Ministry of Education's office, told the Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the judiciary, on Tuesday, June 8: "Education counseling units are performing poorly, but the entire blame for student suicides does not lie with this ministry."
In response to the question of why education and training counseling units do not play an active role in identifying students with mental health problems, he stated: "It is not logical for education and training alone to be responsible for student suicide. Many social reasons lead to the emergence of this problem."
Mohammad Reza Farahani, Deputy Minister of Student Affairs and Culture at the Ministry of Health, told reporters on May 18 last year that the number of students suffering from depression in recent years, as well as the number of suicides committed during the height of depression, has increased alarmingly.
Suicide has been on the rise in Iran in recent years. Along with depression and mental disorders, unemployment, poverty, lack of security and a clear vision for the future, and social problems and anomalies are among the main reasons for this trend.
According to ILNA news agency, Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpay, head of the Welfare Organization, announced at a meeting of the organization's senior managers in January last year that 34 percent of Iranians between the ages of 19 and 60 suffer from mental disorders.
Source: DW
