Just as what we say is our POV what the mother did was as per her POV and she acted accordingly.
The wearer knows best where the shoe pinches . Its very easy to pass judgement without knowing the full circumstances. You say the first step is suicide -for students who fail ! Thats a blatant generalisation. Not all students who fail commit suicide. The few that do get mentioned by the media, those that don't , never get mentioned .
We also need to bear in mind that a person in depression or desperation is unable to think rationally and is quite liable to act impulsively.
When you consider all possibilities you can very rightly say that the children could have been taken care of. The mother in her state of mind under the circumstances she faced obviously did not think so. Had she felt that her husband or in laws with whom she was having trouble or even her own parents would look after her kids she would not have taken such a drastic step. She was in a better position to know her situation than any of us here. Besides, the same yardstick cannot be applied to judge a normal person and one who may be under mental depression.