SLC is widely touted as the ‘judgement time’ for students, the culmination of ten years of school study examined in one deciding year that can make or break a person’s academic career. It’s a much watered-down version of the fabled ‘Iron Gate’ today- declining standards have taken their toll as educationists seek to make it much easier for barely literate hooligans to pass the test.
Not that I’m complaining; distinction marks are as welcome to me as the next person. If it brings a smile on your parent’s face and a beaming nod from the admission officer, why not? But the point I’m making is that SLC is no longer the ‘Iron Gate’, that the grinding work starts a bit later, when you’re looking for colleges.
More specifically, A-level colleges.
It starts on the day after your last exam. You’re just awake from a well-earned slumber, at eight in the morning, contemplating the happy days ahead and planning your holidays, when your phone rings disconcertingly. It’s your friend, asking you whether you joined any Bridge Course institutes and informing you that the class-topper has already enrolled himself at Intel or Cambridge or whichever institute. You sit bolt upright. Holidays have just begun, you exclaim incredulously. But so have the Bridge Courses that everyone who’s studying A-levels must take, because there’s so much you won’t understand otherwise. And you stand no chance in the entrance exams because questions are asked from the so-called ‘O-levels’ which are the British substitute for SLC. Surprise, surprise.
An unhappy three days later, you’re in. But the ordeal has barely started. You learn that forms for Rato Bangala, Chelsea and other A-level institutes are already being distributed. More worryingly, distribution will continue for only two more days.
After hastily obtaining the forms, you sit down to fill them. You groan at the long list of philosophical and self-assessing questions(“How do you respond to authority?” and “Where do you see yourself ten years later, socially and professionally?”). You shake your head in disbelief at the recommendation letters, to be filled by your School Principal and Class teacher. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it does.
Gotcha! cry the Maobadis. Schools closed indefinitely. No way to obtain the transfer certificate, character certificate and much more inportantly, the two conspiciously empty recommendation forms. All while the form submission deadline looms closer.
But suddenly, the bandh is lifted. A ray of sunshine! Or is it? Schools are open, yes, but for one day. You aren’t prepared to go today. You need to phone your friends, make a plan and get to school. Next day perhaps? Tomorrow is May 1, the dreaded day for all Kathmanduites and the days ahead are uncertain. Will the A-level hopefuls make it in time? Will the college choice get any easier? What will be the final verdict of the top, much sought-after colleges? Stay tuned for the next episode in the emotion-ridden ‘Real Iron Gate’ drama…
