She shouldn’t have died

The tragedy of discrimination and lack of dissent in our schooling system has been captured by the tragic suicide of a 17-year-old girl in Quetta. Reports confirm that the girl had committed suicide after her college, the Government Girls Degree College Muslim Bagh, had refused to send her intermediate-level examination forms to the education board. The girl’s family reported that she had been organising protests against college authorities, including the principal, over the poor quality of education; this reportedly led to the principal deciding to withhold her examination forms. The college had suspended classes owing to a shortage of female teachers. Twelve other girls from the college were also been reported to have been denied the right to sit in exams on the charge of protesting against the college administration. The tragedy of 17-year-old Saqiba is that she was a bright student who wanted to get educated at all costs. Her damning suicide note is addressed to her principal. A position-holder, she was willing to take up the cause of education for others. Her’s was a precious life that should not have been lost.

The police have resisted protests by the girl’s family to register a case against college officials. It is unclear what kind of justice a criminal case would be able to provide in this matter, but the reality is that the role of college officials in pushing the girl to commit suicide cannot be discounted. While a probe into the incident has been ordered by the Balochistan chief minister, the suicide is nothing short of a damnation of our public education system. The Balochistan education minister himself spoke of a brilliant girl who had been demoralised by the petty attitude of her principal. A girl who wanted to get education was denied that by the schooling system. This is a story we can tell many times over in our country. What was different is that this girl chose to take her life after being denied an education. It is easy to dismiss her decision as immature. Like the recent case in India, where a Dalit student committed suicide in a university, the girl’s suicide should instead be taken as a moment to kick off a national debate on our schooling system. The life of a girl who protested being denied her right to education must not go to waste. We must also talk about the victimisation that our students face generally – whether in public schools and colleges or the more elite universities – when it comes to their right to question their teachers or their educational institutes. There are no mechanisms in place for students to turn to when they face bias or unnecessary censure merely for speaking out.