Boards must ensure that their counsellors are well-trained professionals, able to address the students confidently and with a measure of calm. Desperate cases call for medical care and quick response. Counsellors may be able to pick up on certain symptoms and should act on those. It is absolutely essential that those manning the helplines are qualified professionals so that students are correctly guided and reassured.

Having said that, students too should not be so emotionally brittle and go to extremes like taking their life over an academic disappointment. While career is important, life is certainly to be cherished more.

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Instead, students can take heart from the numerous inspirational stories like Sameeka Samal, who lost her books and hall ticket in a fire that gutted her Wadala home just a week before the CBSE exam and still scored over 90 per cent. A differently-abled boy called Nadeem Shaikh wrote his HSC exam with his feet. Prema Jayakumar, daughter of an auto rickshaw driver defied all odds and adversity to top the All India Chartered Accountancy (CA) examination. Students must take heart from such gritty tales to realise that setbacks can be overcome with spirit and determination.