MANAGING MARCH MANIA… (2)

MANAGING MARCH MANIA… (2)

And when the child faces a crisis…

It was the first day of the examination. I was getting ready to be present in the office as early as 7 30 am to be available for meeting any eventualities. Preparedness is very important to face the challenges associated with the conduct of examinations.

And the telephone rings…

“Sir…”  I hear the voice of a lady – the mother of a child…

“Yes madam…”

I couldn’t get a response. I only hear the sobbing of the lady.. I could sense she was crying.. she was sobbing a bit uncontrollably.

“Madam, please tell me.. what is your problem?”

“Sir. This stupid girl, my only daughter, she has lost her hall ticket…she doesn’t know where she has kept. She is crying and tense. She is my only child, fatherless child.. I don’t know what to do..if she doesn’t write the exam a whole year will be lost…” she was suffering from a sense of despair, insecurity and helplessness.

In those days, hall tickets were not available on the net. The printed admit cards were sent to the schools.

“Madam, Don’t worry. There is no problem. We will help her to sit in the exam. Ask her to stop crying and keep cool. She needs courage and peace of mind to write the exam..”

The lady continued.. “ I don’t know what to do Sir.. “

“Did you talk to the Principal of the school?”

“I did Sir… She replied ‘your daughter has always been irresponsible. Ask her to face the music.”

I wasn’t sure whether that was the exact reply of the Principal, but I could realize that the lady couldn’t get much help from the Principal.

“ Don’t worry. Please go to the school where she is studying. I will talk to the Principal, She will get an authorization and with that she could go to the examination center.”

The lady got pacified, thanked profusely..

I had to call the Principal and was surprised to get a bit of a negative comment. I told her “ Madam, this is not the time to sit in judgment whether she was right or wrong in her relationship with the school. You can’t link two things which have no connections. You need to reach out to the child to see she is able to write the examinations with comfort. The child would be coming to meet you. Just do what I say.” I had to assert to tell her to issue a bonafide certificate indicating the details of the child along with the school stamp and do the needful immediately. Y miswithout any hinderance… Requested her to depute a teacher along with the child to the exam center to sort out if any problem rises because of the absence of the original admit car. Every problem has a solution if at all one wants to find it..Isn’t it?

Late in the evening, the same mother calls up to say “Thank you Sir. We got the Admit card. By mistake she had kept the Admit card in her instrument box. As it was English exam, she thought she would not need the box. She totally forgot where she had kept. Thanks for the help”

When one is Stressed, your feeling erase most of your current memories and you feel totally lost. 

I had to assert to tell her to issue a bonafide certificate indicating the details of the child along with the school stamp and do the needful immediately. And another call to the Center superintendent to facilitate the child to write the examination without any hinderance…Every problem has a solution if at all one wants to find it..Isn’t it?

It is very important that all stakeholders associated with the examination have to be humane, supportive and facilitative to a genuine examinee who is already under avoidable stress during the examination. It is often seen that parents also get unduly stressed when things go wrong slightly and start imagining unwanted things.

In early eighties, when technology was not very much accessible, the problems had to be sorted out by personal engagements which required time and empathy.

After I sorted out the problem and hung the phone down, another call came from the Principal of a school somewhere from Madhya Pradesh who said “Sir, one of students has lost the admit card. What should I do?”

Lack of awareness and unfamiliarity with rules and procedures is often an issue in the conduct of the examinations.

I asked “Have you not seen the rules and procedures to be followed in such cases?”

“Sorry Sir. Where do I find them?”

For a few heads of schools, who are either freshers or those who are indifferent to learn, such problems are difficult to handle…