Nail Biting

The National Exam is over!

I can hear the loud music and singing from the probable celebrations as I type this. This is the exam, the one that they all prepare for throughout their pre-university schooling. It's crazy!

The exam takes place over three days. All of the other senior students are excused from classes and are actually barred from entering the school grounds (unless they live in the dorms). The street in front of the school is blocked (so there is no traffic noise) with a police person standing watch to make sure no one sneaks through. The gate is locked except for when they let students in and out (or for the curious foreign teacher wandering around).

Parents take the testing days off and wait outside of the gate. There were small crowds of people all squatting on the sidewalk outside of the school, waiting for their child to finish the test. Everyone is tense. Just walking through the campus was eerie. No noise. None. At all.

Things were even quiet on the Junior campus - even they recognize the seriousness of The Test. The children were doing all of the things they generally do out on the playground, but not really making any noise. Spooky. Really spooky.

Anyhow, the test is now over and now they wait for the results - dwell on the test and over think what they did wrong. I hope there aren't any suicides. That would be horrible. I am worried about one of the students Matt and I had conversation practice with. These kids have so much stress - more than I ever had at their age. They prematurely go grey because of the stress. I am thinking about bringing up the idea of peer counseling to our waiban. When given the opportunity to talk about problems, they are startling open about what they are feeling and want to talk about whatever is on their minds, but they really do not have the opportunity to do so.

Anyhow, The Test is now done. The Junior 3 test to get into Senior School is coming up next (they only get one crack at that test).