By Abdulla Zahir
It is the time of the year a strong breeze would be blowing from the East, swaying the tall coconut trees gracefully, flip-flapping the long leaves, leaving a rhythm, adapted to motorized vehicle-free island environment. When the wind gets a little bit stronger, it sprays the dried sand into the eyes of people on the roads and onto the metal corrugated roofs. It is also that time of the year waves would crown white froth on their crests bringing the drifting waste onto the shores of the islands. On these shores, unattended carefree children would roam, scavenger hunting through the rubbish to find any fortunes, like the valuable ambergris. Almost naked, their bare skin tanned in the hot sun, these children fish, and collect the castaways and often get bitten by things like Portuguese-Man-of War. The same carefree children at the other time of the day would be seen near their schools, nicely dressed in uniforms, almost empty handed waiting for the bell to go.
In neat single file lines, with wet look on their hair, white talcum powder on their face smearing and streaking down with the noon perspiration, they enter into the halls for their year end exam. Then they would search for their candidate numbers for a while and finally would sit down, bringing a wave of calmness into the hall. With only a handful of pencils or pens and rulers or sometimes the metal instrument box, the children would wait for the exams to begin. The head examiner would tell to distribute the paper scripts and advises not to turn pages until they are told to do so, yet some eager children would not care, and just peep through by lifting a corner of the first page or front page.
At last with the order to begin the exam and with a meaningless good luck from the examiner, the children start the exam. The pin-drop silent hall would then be filled with the sound of paper friction, the simultaneous turning of pages by nervous candidates to see what was there written for them.
Afterwards, they would be seen doing the exam. Some would be seen looking up, the ceiling , remembering the facts and figures and some even would be seen counting their fingers. The seemingly weaker ones would sometimes sit silently just scribbling something and at the worst times they would timidly lie down and sleep till the end of the exam. The only sound would be the sound of an occasional cough, the whirling of fans and a sudden burst of a metal instrumental box on the cement floor which would startle everyone. Then for a brief second, everyone would look, exchange amusing smiles, sometimes a soundless giggle and again plunge into the sea of seriousness.
Finally when the bell rings to announce the end of exam, the children could not wait to discuss exam. Disregarding the rules, they whisper use codes, gestures and eye messages about what they experience. When they are released, they discuss openly, excited about what they wrote, check their answers some would hurray, clap their hands while others would look glum and depressed. Yet even those who scribbled something on the papers also would expect at least a miraculous pass on the scripts showing day.
Eventually, on the day children would come with a pen or pencil and sometimes a calculator to check their scripts. Some children would be seen happy, others would be seen weeping , especially the stereotyped, 'high temperament bearing' female kids, while hugging their mothers. Emotional and often irritated and provoked by kids, parents would go to attack the teachers for minor mistakes on scripts by the teachers, just to please their children. Sometimes discussions with teachers turn into ugly fights.
Whatever the results, exam, especially year end exam is an ordeal for the students and the parents, as parents expect very high on their kids. It is shameful to note that how much the parents expect, is not backed by the parents on their sides. There are fathers who even do not know their kids classes. The fathers in the islands would only be notified by their wives about their kids education when it is time to buy the books for the next year. It is the only time he would know that his kids did well or did not get through. Similarly mothers could not regularly help their childrens education because of their poor educational background, which could not cope with their children educational needs. In the islands, good tutors aren't there and tuition is just a dream. Therefore how hard would it be for a child whose parents are in such conditions and who could still get beaten when he returns from the reports giving ceremony with a 'red' report?
