As the academic year comes to an end for Indian expatriate students studying in schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), thousands of them are sitting for their annual exams this month. Among the most important exams for Indian expatriate students are the final exams for the 10th and 12th grades which play a crucial role in determining students' careers. Students, urged on by their parents, are aiming to score the highest grades possible so as to gain admission to good professional colleges in India. The final exams, which began on March 2 for the 12th grade and March 4 for 10th graders, will last until the end of the month. Due to examination stress, large numbers of Indian students and parents in the Kingdom have started experiencing sleepless nights with visits to friends, eating out and weekend trips being put on hold until the exams are over. Exam mania and competition are often more widespread among parents than students. Most parents, especially mothers, spend long hours preparing their children for exams with 90 percent of them paying for private tuition to ensure good grades. Rameena, a mother of two, says she stays at home even on weekends to help her son, who is in the 12th grade, and daughter in the 10th grade revise their lessons in preparation for the examinations. With a B.A. in education and M.A in Commerce, Amina, whose son is sitting his 12th grade exams, does not engage private tutors. Instead she is using the Internet and other resources to prepare her son for his exams. “The marks on this exam will determine the future career of my son who is in the science section and is planning to take the entrance exam to study medicine in India. In order to gain admission to a good medical college, his 12th grade exam marks have to be above 85 percent. So we are working hard for that,” she said. Parents of students in lower classes are also suffering from exam fever as they too try to do all they can to ensure good grades for their children. Some parents put a lot of pressure on their children even taking leave from work to monitor their studies. Mustafa, a father of two girls in the 6th and the 8th grades, told the Saudi Gazette that his wife cooks only once a week and spends almost all her time tutoring the two girls because she says they are a bit behind in their studies. In the second term exams, the two girls scored 74 and 78 percent. “Those are low grades compared to other students, and this time I am trying to get them above 85 percent,” she said. Students up to class five have no end-of-year exams. Instead they have Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) tests which are conducted throughout the academic year to determine their promotion to the next level. Classes one to four have a Universal 100 percent Promotion policy. Although this is the case, parents say they are not worried about promotion, but about scoring the highest marks possible. Meanwhile, most of the students who finish the 10th grade and all students after the 12th grade leave the Kingdom for higher studies as there is no facility for further education here. Most of these students join one-year medical or engineering entrance examination coaching classes in India before taking the exam. Most Indian expatriate students who receive fairly high scores in the 12th grade fail to do so in the entrance exams which forces their parents to buy seats in professional colleges for large sums of money, sometimes as much as SR350,000.
