Jamshedpur : Burning their midnight oil students of the city are gripped with the fever of board exams these days.
Reports with psychiatrists in the city say that parental expectations, rising levels of competition, pressure during examination time have left children suffering from stress. This year 4212 students will appear for ICSE while 2884 students are appearing for ISC across 43 schools in the city.
The number of examinees in CBSE has also increased as more students have opted for board examinations rather than the school based examinations. There are about 4500 students appearing from CBSE class X and 3500 students in class XII.
The CBSE’s class XII students will start their examinations with English on March 2 and class X students will start with science on March 3.
Although the ISC practicals have started from yesterday, the theory papers will begin from February 23 with computer science. For class X, the first paper Hindi starts from February 26.
With Board exams city students are busy with last-minute preparations, conducting remedial classes and
mock exams on a daily basis.
While private teachers and tutors are giving personalised attention to help students overcome exam stress and anxiety, the CBSE helpline numbers are flooded with calls from students and parents asking for advice to face the Boards confidently and score well.
Some institutions are also using information technology for lastminute exam preparations. They are mailing sample question papers to students on a daily basis and discussing the answers the following day.
Some schools said students continued to memorize answers from the textbook while others tried to answer questions based on what they understood.
“We have encouraged our students to learn answers for all the questions in an exhaustive question bank prepared by our teachers, said a principal. She said, “As a parent I ensure that my son takes constructive breaks like listening to music.
It re-energizes her brain and increases her focus.Parents should ensure that children take enough sleep. Everybody wants their child to top the board exams.
They mount pressure on their wards that lead to stress and nervous breakdown,” said A K Prasad, a city-based psychiatrist.
He said that the numbers of patients they are counselling these days that are as young as 14 and 16 years have increased. The climbing graph of patients in their early teens shows that the fear of performing well in the exams is having its toll.
“Pressure for better performance is one of the prime reasons for unmanageable stress and depression among children. I am of the opinion that the present system of education that lays too much emphasis on exams and marks, homework and preparation that take so much time that there is none left for play or even interaction with friends and family and above all the absence of a listening ear, lead to behavioural problems that develop into more serious forms of mental imbalance,” said Prasad.