Govt confirms cases linked to board, NEET stress
PANAJI
The Goa government has confirmed that five teenage students died by suicide in 2022 and 2023 due to academic stress, including pressure over NEET results.
The government said the reasons included severe anxiety about board exams, illness that stopped a student from attending the last two papers of the Class XI exams, fear of poor NEET scores, and depression due to low marks in mathematics.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant provided these details in a written reply to Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao in the Assembly. He noted that a family reported their 19-year-old began showing emotional distress after appearing for the Class XII exams.
The government admitted that suicides linked to academic stress were reported from 2022 to 2023, but no such deaths were recorded in the last one and a half years.
In addition, the Chief Minister confirmed that three student deaths at BITS Pilani’s Goa campus between December 2024 and May 2025 are under investigation, and the causes are not yet clear.
In the first case from December 2024, police sent the student’s answer sheet to IIT for re-evaluation, and the report is awaited. In the March 2025 case, police are waiting for viscera reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory in Verna, and the student’s laptop has been sent for forensic checks. The same process is ongoing for the May 2025 case, with viscera reports still pending. Two of these students were from Uttar Pradesh, and one was from Goa.
The government stated that the Director of Higher Education, who also serves as the State Nodal Officer for student mental health at BITS Pilani, has coordinated with the National Task Force to discuss steps to prevent suicides in educational institutions.
BITS Pilani, Goa campus, has submitted a preliminary report on the incidents along with details of measures they have taken, which has been shared with the government for review.
