“We need to support the children,” DC Keerthi Jalli on exam season; “write your exams with faith, confidence, and courage,” she adds

It is examination time for the Class XII and Class X students. “Boards” as these tests are often called, always come as a challenge for the examinees but this time, the complications are a notch higher. The students appearing for these tests have had a hiatus when it comes to classroom education. The Class X students didn’t sit for the Class IX test that is prepared by the board and for the Class XII students, their Class X final examinations were the last offline tests they took.

This hiatus has created a vacuum that is not only challenging academically but also causing stress mentally. After the Science stream’s Physics test, there was an outrage on Twitter as the question paper was tough and concept-based. Many of the students have faced such a question paper for the first time while, by now, they must have been accustomed to such a question set.

The hiatus will create some dread, believes the deputy commissioner of Cachar, Keerthi Jalli. She herself is an IAS Officer and has passed through these tests with flying colours. “I think we as a culture, of course, celebrate the virtue of success but we do not celebrate the virtue of rising after falling down sometimes in life. Life will knock you down a couple of times and kids need to be instilled in the value that it’s ok to falter sometimes as long as you learn to get up. Exams are a good time to re-instill this value in children,” says deputy commissioner Keerthi Jalli.

She adds, “I still believe our syllabus is such that even if you miss studying the entire year you can actually sit and study even in the last run of this marathon.”

For the parents, she suggests, “I request the parents to also not instill this idea that any mark less than a hundred is very bad. We need to support the children to have faith in themselves.” She refers to the Gita to further break it down. “Our Gita also says if you have done your best, done your hardest and have done your work with sincerity then leave the results and they will themselves come back to you with big success. I hope parents remind their children that it’s alright to come back as long as they have done their bit with full dedication.”

She concludes, “I wish the children all the best for the coming exams. Remember that it is revision time, it is also time for remembering to have faith in yourselves and the more anxious you get the more there’s a tendency for the brain to forget data so be cool-headed, keep sipping water through the exams and write your exams with faith, confidence, and courage.”