Usha Raman With board examinations round the corner, tenth and twelfth grade classes in most schools across the country are in revision mode. Pre-finals and preparatory examinations are in full swing. Teachers carry around notebooks and folders to be corrected and report cards to be filled, juggle timetables to squeeze in that one extra class, and hold last minute discussions with colleagues and parents on how to handle troublesome promotions. Just another day at the office, perhaps, but the end of the year lends a certain tension to the school air. There is anxiety on some faces, resignation on others, a weary acceptance on the more seasoned visages, and, for the few who have learned that anxiety is neither warranted nor wise, this time is like any other… just, as Lewis Carroll would say, more so! “The end of the year need not be any different from the end of any term,” says Gita Iyengar, Principal of Johnson Grammar School in Hyderabad. “The curriculum is broken up by term, reports need to be finished each term, so for the individual teacher, there are deadlines to meet every term,” she explains. Such a pragmatic attitude may be understandable, and perhaps to be expected, on the part of a principal, but do teachers really feel the same way? Are they able to treat the final examination only as a barometer of academic achievement and not some ultimate pronouncement on performance? Is the yearend stress not as big a deal as it is made out to be? Or is it only something students feel? For most teachers, the end of the year and everything it brings with it may be routine, but it is no less difficult or stressful because of that, but each individual deals with it differently and finds ways to cope. “Teachers do have a tough time when the third term comes around,” observes Sumalata Yadav, a high school social studies teacher in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Secunderabad. “The slow process of syllabus completion picks up speed, and we have to create an atmosphere that motivates the children to work toward the exams – particularly the school leaving classes.” While, as Gita Iyengar notes, “wiser” teachers may know how to pace out their work in such a way that they are not faced with a huge workload at the end of the year, there is still a certain amount of tension that characterizes the pre-exam weeks partly because of the high expectations of parents and school managements.