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In three states, four young students died within weeks of one other. Different cities, different classrooms-but the same haunting theme runs through their last words: they felt alone, unheard, and unprotected.

In Jaipur, a Class 4 student spent 18 months begging for help. She approached her teacher five times on the morning of November 1, pleading to be rescued from relentless bullying. According to a CBSE probe, she was repeatedly told to "adjust." Minutes later, the nine-year-old jumped from her school building. Her mother had earlier recorded the child sobbing, begging, "Mumma, I don't want to go to school. Everyone troubles me." No action was taken.

In Delhi, a Class 10 student, aged 16, walked in front of a metro train. His suicide note apologised to his family and asked for his organs to be donated. He wrote about being “mentally harassed for years” by teachers who allegedly mocked him, even when he fell during a drama class. His father recalls the last incident: “He slipped, and instead of helping him, the teacher pushed him and accused him of acting.” The family was already planning to shift him after exams.

In Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, a Class 11 girl aged 17 left behind a five-page note detailing months of physical humiliation. She wrote how her teacher pressed a pen between her fingers as punishment, held her wrists tightly and taunted her to open his closed fist. Her family says she was deeply loved at home and had no personal troubles—“Someone at school was torturing her,” they said.

In Rajasthan's Karauli district, a 14-year-old boy was found hanging from a tree near his home after he was allegedly beaten and harassed by two teachers and a school administrator. In his note, he pleaded with his parents to ensure they were punished.

These deaths are triggering anger, grief, and urgent questions across India. Parents and experts warn that bullying in schools is no longer an isolated behavioural issue but an escalating public safety and mental-health crisis.

Probes are underway across three states. Child-rights activists are demanding strict anti-bullying protocols, trained counsellors in every school, and transparent reporting systems-before more children feel their only escape is death.

Four teachers of a Delhi school have been suspended following the death by suicide of a Class 10 student at a metro station in the capital allegedly due to mental harassment.

Now, the family has alleged that the boy was being scolded and troubled by his teachers for one year; further, the boy was depressed long and had informed the counsellors and teachers that he was going to commit suicide.

A copy of the letter addressed to the teachers stated, “This is to inform you that the school has been made aware of an FIR registered against you, bearing No. 336A Tis Hazari Court, dated 19th November 2025. The matter is presently under investigation by the appropriate authorities.” Hindustan Times has accessed copies of the four letters.

According to police, the 16-year-old boy leaped from the Rajendra Place Metro Station platform on Tuesday at 2:34 p.m. After being brought to BLK Super Speciality Hospital, he was pronounced dead. "The competent authority has decided to suspend you immediately due to the seriousness of the allegations. You will continue to be suspended until the investigation is finished and you receive additional directives from the appropriate authority," it continued.

On Thursday, the student's parents and friends staged a demonstration outside the Ashok Palace school, calling for accountability from the school administration and harsh punishment for the accused teachers.

Family alleged ill-treatment at school

The father of the Class 10 student has blamed his teachers and school principal for pushing him to take the extreme step.

In his complaint, the father has alleged that his son was being “troubled over petty issues”. According to a senior police officer, the student left behind a suicide note in which he has named a few teachers blaming them for his mental distress, demanding strict action against them. "For the last one year, my son was being scolded and troubled by his teachers over petty issues. He told us about it and we raised our concerns with his teachers but nothing happened. Even his friends were troubled by those teachers," the boy's father told HT earlier. The father further alleged that on Tuesday his son had fainted at school, which his teacher ignored, saying that he was faking it. And when the boy insisted that he had fainted and began crying, the teacher allegedly said that was fake too.

The Basic Education Minister of Uttar Pradesh has called for strict action to ensure quality education, safe schooling, and equal treatment of students and teachers alike. He asked for more stringent monitoring, more facilities for girls, and accrual of timely benefits to parents.

Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Minister Sandeep Singh has called upon the officials to place quality education, proper facilities, and a safe learning environment at the center of all planning.

Addressing a review meeting at Yojana Bhawan, he said any obstacle in the learning or development of the students would not be tolerated and called for dedicated effort by every staff member.

Comfort can quietly become an obstacle to progress, the Minister said while cautioning them that there is “no substitute for hard work.” He called upon the officers to accord fair treatment to teachers and bring in equality in all schools.

FOCUS ON TIMELY BENEFITS AND SCHOOL MONITORING

He instructed officers of the Basic Education Department to ensure that Rs 1,200 is credited into the account of every parent via DBT for the uniforms of the students. Singh further called for close monitoring across schools, saying routine inspections should not be ignored. He laid special emphasis on strengthening Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas and asked the officials to ensure that girls do not face any kind of difficulty. He added that women officers must communicate separately with the female students to understand their needs and also assure safety. 

GIRLS' EDUCATION AND STAFF RESPONSIBILITY

Singh said the vacant posts in these schools should be filled on priority so that teaching and support services are not disrupted. He underlined the point that no obstacle should come in the way of a girl's education or well-being. The minister also spoke on the issue of teachers' discipline and requested the authorities not to issue show-cause notices for minor delays of 15 to 20 minutes. He said the officials should first hear the explanation of the teacher and take action only if the delay is proved unreasonable. 

BALANCING ACCOUNTABILITY AND TEACHER MORALE

Singh stressed that accountability must not be at the cost of morale of the teachers. He said as long as the teachers were not made to feel discouraged, there would always remain a guarantee of progress on the part of students. All administrative decisions, he added, must be based upon fair play, transparency, and sensitivity. This review meeting culminated in renewed calls for teamwork, dedication, and continued monitoring to ensure that students throughout the state get the education and support which they so rightly deserve.

In a key move, Delhi University has decided to promote all postgraduate students of the 2024–25 batch into their second year. The university is set to roll out a new PG Curriculum Framework–2025 with the aim of making the transition smooth, thereby not causing academic disruption to roughly 11,000 learners.

Delhi University has decided to promote all postgraduate students enrolled in the session 2024–25 into the second year, notwithstanding whether they appeared for or cleared their first-year examinations.

This decision has been taken to ensure a smooth academic transition and as a preparatory step for implementation of the Post Graduate Curriculum Framework–2025 at the university.

The structure suggested is designed on the basis of the National Education Policy and is likely to replace the existing Choice-Based Credit System and Learning Outcome-based Curriculum Framework.

This incompatibility, according to university officials, was due to a structural mismatch between the new model and the two existing frameworks.

The officials said the retention of students in older systems would lead to an academic disruption besides delaying the implementation of a new curriculum.

"Keeping students under the previous frameworks would have created gaps in course continuity. The decision ensures that no student's academic journey is disrupted," said a senior university official involved in the transition process.

The move will affect around 11,000 students enrolled in over 80 postgraduate programs at the university.

Thus, all eligible students will now be promoted to Semester III as regular learners, thereby allowing the institution to complete the shift to PGCF-2025 without overlap between the old and new structures.

Officials said it only applies to the 2024-25 batch and will not set any kind of precedence for subsequent years.

They termed this an administrative necessity in these times of curriculum reform.

PGCF-2025 aims to align postgraduate learning to the aspirations of NEP through its multidisciplinary courses, flexible learning paths, and skill-based evaluation. The curriculum also focuses on research exposure, cross-departmental electives, and a shift away from rote learning to application-based understanding. The decision to promote has come as a respite for the thousands of students while a section of the faculty expressed apprehensions over its long-term implications. They believe the move to automatic promotion would weaken the assessment process and affect academic rigour. However, university officials argue that such a decision was reached after much deliberation and that academic standards would be maintained by follow-up assessments under the new curriculum. Delhi University said the promotion process would be completed before the beginning of the next academic session and detailed guidelines in this regard would be shared soon with all departments.

The Enforcement Directorate conducted raids on Tuesday at Faridabad's Al-Falah University, which, sources said, has emerged as an epicentre of a terror module that carried out a blast in the national capital last Monday.

The action taken by the agency also covered the Al-Falah charitable trust and its trustee Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui, founder of the university running a medical college where doctors accused of running terror modules were employed. Umar un Nabi, the alleged bomber from Kashmir, was among this group of doctors.

"In a coordinated enforcement operation at 5:15 am, officials executed search actions at more than 25 premises connected with the Al-Falah group in Delhi NCR. The operation forms part of an ongoing investigation into financial irregularities, use of shell companies, accommodation entities and money laundering," said an ED source.

The role of Al-Falah Trust and related entities was under investigation, the source said and added that nine shell companies linked to the group, all registered at a single address, were under scanner.

"Prima facie discrepancies have been noted in claims regarding University Grants Commission and National Assessment and Accreditation Council recognition," the source said.

The agency's investigation is based on FIRs lodged by the Delhi Police relating to cheating and forgery, pointed out by the NAAC. Last week, the Council had issued a show-cause notice to the Al-Falah University for displaying fake accreditation on the university's website. It was "misleading", the Council said, and against its norms.

The Centre had asked the ED to assess and analyze the structure of funding of the university and its affiliated colleges following which it registered a case to initiate a formal probe.

Preliminary findings by the state police forces have suggested that a conspiracy for making an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as well as to carry out an attack was hatched at the premises of the Al Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre.

ThePrint had reported that Al-Falah Charitable Trust trustee Jawad Ahmad Siddiqui and his brother Hamood Sidiqqui have long been accused of financial misappropriation and fraud in the name of investment. His brother Hamood was arrested in Hyderabad by Indore Rural District police on Sunday.

A Bangladesh tribunal on Wednesday sentenced opposition leader and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity in connection with the deadly crackdown on protests against the government last year. Tried in absentia, she has been living in exile in India since she fled amidst the crisis. Her former interior minister and police chief were further condemned in the verdict for ordering lethal force against protesters.

These demonstrations, which began largely because of widespread anger among young Bangladeshis against their highly controversial government quota system, turned into political unrest in the country.  30 percent of civil service jobs had been reserved since the independence war in 1971 for veterans and their descendants in a policy increasingly seen as cronyism favoring the supporters of Hasina's Awami League party. 

In 2024, against the backdrop of rising unemployment, students and young graduates went on mass protests to demand a merit-based system. Demonstrations engulfed the whole country, having started from university campuses where protesters mobilized on social media. Unrest spirals into violent clashes between police, ruling party supporters, and demonstrators; hundreds injured, over 100 reported dead. After the interim government came to power, Bangladesh drastically cut down the quotas to just 5% of the government jobs and now they are available only for descendants of veterans. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's new leader Muhammad Yunus has been working on stabilizing the economy through increasing foreign reserves and obtaining loans from the IMF. Hitherto, political instability and violence remain huge challenges. Hasina denies the charges and has labeled the tribunal politically motivated. None except former police chief Abdullah al-Mamun appeared in the courtroom to hear sentencing. The court outlined the extent of violence during the crackdown, which United Nations reports confirm resulted in hundreds of deaths. The judgment coincided with rallies by Hasina's critics in Dhaka amid tight security. The diplomatic tensions remain high as Bangladesh has requested her extradition from India, which so far has refused that demand. This quota reduction is far from the structural reforms that the leaders of the student protests have continued to demand in pursuit of justice over the lives lost. What began as a movement for fairness in government hiring quickly turned into a fundamental challenge against systemic corruption and the absence of meritocracy. 

While the agitation underlines the powerful role that Bangladesh's youth have played so far in shaping the nation's political and social future, yet this is a turning point and speaks to the bigger reckoning taking place in Bangladesh between legacy and reform, privilege and merit, repression and democratic aspiration, led in no small measure by a generation of students unwilling to settle for less than justice and fairness.