DAMMAM: Thousands of Indian expatriate students are now in the grip of exam fever as their academic year is coming to an end. All the Indian schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) are holding their final exams beginning from the first week of March. Indian parents are literally taking a break from everything and are now concentrating on teaching their wards and providing the best study environment they can afford. Final examinations for the tenth and twelfth grade are considered to be more important as the points secured by pupils in these grades determine their future careers. Students, urged on by parents and teachers, are striving to score the highest grades possible to gain admission to good professional colleges back home. Around 95 percent of twelfth grade students have plans to later attend crash courses in India, to get placements in medical or engineering colleges. A good majority of tenth graders also leave the Kingdom to join schools in India to get entrance exam coaching along with eleventh and twelfth grade classes. Students in lower grades are also under immense pressure from their parents and teachers to score high grades because it is a matter of prestige for them. Exam mania and competition can often be found more among parents than students. Most Indian families have cancelled their weekend outings and socializing to prepare their children for exams. “To score good marks is very important for students. I try my best to provide a good environment for my kids to study at home. We do not go for outings over the weekend because the exams are scheduled to start for my children studying in fourth, fifth and sixth grades,” said Amathu Rabb, an Indian mother from Hyderabad, whose children are studying at the International Indian School, Dammam. Deepa, another Indian mother, who works as a staff nurse at a hospital in Al-Khobar, told Saudi Gazette that she has taken a month's leave to prepare her only son to study for tenth grade exams. “Usually I am at work when he is at home and I am not able to help him very much with his studies. I have taken leave from my job to be with my son and to provide him all the necessary support in his studies,” she said. Meanwhile, some cricket-crazy students have found it difficult to concentrate on their studies while their favorite players are out playing in the Cricket World Cup currently underway. Cricket is India's unofficial national game and nationals are as obsessive about the game as Saudis are about football. As they cannot be glued to the television set, these students and their parents take occasional breaks to get updated on the scores.
