Anjita Pradhan

Kathmandu:

Are you sick and tired of revising the same lessons over and over again? It is time to take a break! Board exams scare most of the students. Despite good preparation, as the days of exams near, one starts thinking wish s/he had some more days.

Samita a student of Kantipur Valley School, is all set to face her board exams. She says that fear is always there but this doesn’t help, she believes in keeping her head cool. Samita is just the perfect example for those students who take exams. Some students almost seem to lead an ascetic’s life a week before the exams forgetting to eat, sleep, and drink. Tanuj a student of St Lawrence, narrates a funny incident where his friend, a class topper wore a bathroom slipper to school during exams.

“I have often heard of students fainting during exams. This is not only due to tension but lack of proper food and sleep also,” says Niranjan Upadhaya, chief psychologist, Public Service Commission.

Mithila Bhattarai, psychology teacher at Sano Thimi College, says, “Parents and teachers have a huge role in helping wards cope with the situation”. She believes that instead of encouraging, parents keep sword on their neck expecting them to bring home trophies. “Teachers too don’t spare them; they drill the remaining lesson in their heads not bothering what is going on in their small brains”, she adds.

The expectations of parents and teachers are so high that students often fall prey to depression when they think they will not able to meet it.

Laba Prasad Tripathi, spokesperson, Ministry of Education, says that parents must support and pacify their children at the time of examination making the whole thing seem easy to them. Sanuj, a Class 10 student of Kantipur Academy, feels that since the SLC is the most important certificate that his file would hold, he is determined to score high percentage.

Such attitudes would often tempt students to take chits with them to the examination halls. But according to Murari Regmi, child psychologist, “Only clumsy and slow learners may get tempted to whisper to each other or try to catch a glimpse of the other students’ paper.”