Same class different standard

More immediately, on the examination rests the hopes and fears, the ambitions and anxieties of half a million families. Will my child get the stream of his choice in class XI? Will the paper checkers be fair? Should he falter, will fate give him another chance?

These are not simple questions and there are no simple answers. Certainly, Ravish Arya, 15, is not thinking of them. For three days now, he8217;s been trying to solve the same probability problem, desperately trying to make sense of statistics. He has no help. His parents don8217;t know what he8217;s talking about. He has no army of tutors to run to. Nor even teachers.

Arya8217;s classes at the government-run Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya 8212; in Delhi8217;s Vasant Kunj area 8212; ended just over three weeks ago. Since then, he8217;s been on his own, just him and his revisions.

The young man8217;s probably grateful that regular classes were completed at all. At Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, there8217;s an acute shortage of teachers. Arya8217;s physics teacher doubled 8212; tripled, really 8212; as chemistry and biology teacher. The English teacher raced through the course; she was also the one assigned the drama lessons. The entire school has only about 20 teachers.

It8217;s just so different in the big private schools Arya has heard about. Each pupil is exposed to 15 teachers, he8217;s been told. There8217;s actually a separate one for each individual science subject. Why, he8217;s even heard these teachers routinely pass on their home or mobile numbers to their pupils, saying, 8216;8216;Call me whenever.8217;8217;

That probability problem

HMM 8230; enough of day dreaming, time to get back to work. Damn! Time; it just slips away doesn8217;t it! Arya8217;s into his third revision and, whether he wants to or not, mastering time management skills too.

He8217;s set himself a target of 90 per cent for his mathematics paper but somebody8217;s told him that examiners are impressed by 8216;8216;effort8217;8217;. They like to see figures all over the answer sheet, give marks for 8216;8216;method8217;8217; and problem-solving 8216;8216;evidence8217;8217;.

So Arya has timed himself to a nicety 8212; three and a half minutes for problem one, six minutes for problem three, eight minutes for problem three. He8217;s scribbling furiously, almost decorating the paper with numbers and figures and decimel points.

It8217;s futile 8212; but there8217;s nobody to tell him that. At any rate, his teachers haven8217;t told him. Clear concepts will help him score, not unclear scrawls. It8217;s bewildering, even exasperating. To think Arya is one of the stars in his class of 35; he scored 75 per cent in the internal, 8216;8216;pre-board8217;8217; exams. What8217;s more, his school has a bit of an elite tag to it. Only the cream of government school pupils are sent to showpiece institutions like Rajkiya Pratibha.

FINALLY, after several failed attempts at solving the probability problem, Arya turns to his mother, Nirmal, BA pass course and a masters in middle class existence. It8217;s Greek to the poor woman. Her eyes well up, 8216;8216;I am proud of his desire to know more but cannot forgive myself for being of such little help. He keeps on practising the same sum thinking every attempt will make it simpler. But I can see the frustration on his face.8217;8217;

Private tution would help 8212; but would set the family back by Rs 500 a month. Arya8217;s father earns about Rs 6,000. It8217;s never going to be enough.

So in his spare one-room home 8212; partitioned by his mother8217;s old saree 8212; Arya sits, back straight, on the only sofa around 8212; and struggles for that extra mark. A struggle in vain. But shh 8230; don8217;t tell him.

He studies five hours a day, his little mind and soaring hopes occasionally interrupted the pungent smell of onions being chopped, by the noise of utensils being washed.

Not that his family isn8217;t supportive. They8217;re doing all they can, tip-toing in the tiny room they live in, whispering, talking only when necessary, shooing away visitors. Arya is not sitting his own exam; for his family, it8217;s their entire future on trial.

The pressure, the pressure 8230; it must be overwhelming. Arya never tells you if he feels it, probably hasn8217;t thought it through himself. Yet there are times when needs a break, when the fears and the frustrations begin to choke him.

He walks across to the general store his father runs in Palam Gaon, the urban village the Aryas live in. Working at the shop keeps his mind active, the boy says. Toting up customers8217; bills, doing quick calculations 8212; it8217;s impressive but it8217;s not going to help with probablity. In more senses than one, Ravish Arya is playing the game of chance.

Question bank deposits

CHANCE is something Farhad Colabavala would rather leave nothing to. At 14, the Vasant Valley pupil is preparing for the same examination as Arya, waiting to write the same CBSE papers. They don8217;t live too far away either. The well-appointed Gurgaon home of the Colabavalas is just outside Delhi, just about 30 km from Palam Gaon. Depending on how you look at it, that8217;s a short distance 8212; or a whole universe away.

Colabavala prefers studying in the privacy of his parents8217; bedroom. There8217;re no vistors or distractions here 8212; only the computer, the World Space radio and the music system. The television is not around to tempt him. It8217;s been left behind in his bedroom, across the hall.

Colabavala is in the top quarter of his class. Vasant Valley has set a limit of 30 to the number of pupils in a section. It also emphasises all-round development.

So on any given day, Colabavala encounters 16 teachers 8212; plain vanilla subject teachers, group tutors, personal tutors, extra-curricular guides, sports coaches. Time8217;s always a bit of a juggle. Colabavala is a member of the athletics, cricket and soccer clubs. Theatre is a new passion and he8217;s just joined the drama club.

Of course, he can8217;t neglect the classroom. Actually he hasn8217;t, scoring 83 per cent in his pre-board exams.

The young man is quite an achiever. His parents praise the school. 8216;8216;We8217;ve been given a time-table of the classes and when specific teachers are free,8217;8217; says mother Kumud, 8216;8216;so if Farhad has a problem he can go to school and ask the subject teacher for help.8217;8217;

Colabavala can also call the numerous helplines activated by CBSE or by NGOs. These could help Ravish Arya with his probability theories 8212; but he doesn8217;t know they exist.

SCHOOL examinations are sometimes likened to war-ops. Ask Colabavala. Other than school faculty and infrastructure, he8217;ll point to the question banks put together by subject teachers. Every conceivable question CBSE paper setters could ask 8212; or have asked in previous years 8212; finds place in these banks.

8216;8216;You can test yourself through them,8217;8217; says Colabavala, 8216;they also cover areas outside the course. So it gives you the confidence of answering just about any question.8217;8217;

For his second language course, Vasant Valley offered Colabavala the choice of either Hindi or French. He took the third option 8212; French. Since no one at school could teach him the language, special tutorials had to be arranged. These cost Colabavala Rs 200 per class.

Arya too is grasping the complexities of language. He confesses Hindi is much harder for him than English: 8216;8216;I feel confident about English. But my Hindi grammar is weak.8217;8217; His mother chips in here.

For Colabavala, the tough nuts are physics, maths and French. He8217;s lucky in that his father, a former banker who now heads a head-hunting firm, is the perfect tutor. 8216;8216;I8217;ve had to take days off to sit and teach him,8217;8217; says the father, Khushroo, 8216;8216;on any given day we make sure that one of the parents is home with him to help him and to move in whenever he tends to slip up.8217;8217;

The parents fear cable TV, the music system or the mobile phone 8212; confiscated due to 8216;8216;too many SMSes8217;8217; 8212; will get in the way of his revision.

8216;8216;We8217;ve told him the marks don8217;t matter,8217;8217; says Khushroo, 8216;8216; but that he must give it his best shot. We don8217;t want him to ever regret not having given his best.8217;8217; They say they are careful to shelter their son from the hype that has come to surround the class X board exam.

Arya8217;s father prefers the hard school. He does realise that with a little extra attention 8212; like that given at some of the privately-run schools 8212; his boy could do better but will never admit that to Ravish. His only question to his son when he comes home after a day8217;s work is, 8216;8216;How many hours did you study today?8217;8217;

The pressure to perform keeps Arya up into the early hours, to finish that final chapter reading, understand that one section. With a week to go, it8217;s a manic race.

He needs every ounce of energy. His mother is careful to soak six almonds overnight. Arya is force fed these in the morning, along with a spoonful of Chavanprash.

The Colabavala household too is on exam diet. Light recipes are being tossed in the kitchen. 8216;8216;Heavy meals make him sleepy,8217;8217; says Kumud, 8216;8216;we are trying to give him lighter and smaller meals, so he can study after lunch and dinner. Pizzas and other junk food are an absolute no-no.8217;8217;

His own counsellor

There8217;s food for the body, and there8217;s nutrition for the mind. Colabavala8217;s school has arranged for counselling by psychiatrists. To Kumud, it8217;s a boon: 8216;8216;The children can speak to the counsellor about any problem and have it kept confidential. It could be a personal problem, stress due to exams, parental pressure or anything else. Just venting it out helps.8217;8217;

Arya too feels the need to talk, to 8216;8216;just vent8217;8217;, to borrow Kumud Colabavala8217;s expression. He wants to tell his drunk neighbour to shut up. He wants someone to transport him to those vital tutorials. He wants to listen to It8217;s magic from Koi Mil Gaya. He wants to watch Pogo. He wants to de-stress.

But no, he8217;s never heard of that strange animal called the 8216;8216;counsellor8217;8217;. Rather, he8217;s his own counsellor, his hopes his own therapy. He smiles when he thinks of the technician he hopes he will grow up to be.

Like Ravish Arya, Farhad Colabavala too wants a life, to race through these exams, enjoy the summer, visit the malls, go to the movies. Like Ravish Arya, Farhad Colabavala too wants to do well in life, to excel in these exams, get a further degree, and a great job.

Next week these two young Indians will put their aspirations to test. They will confront the same questions, take the same challenge. After all, the CBSE class X exam is one of the most democratic tools ever invented. It will give Arya and Colabavala an equal shot 8212; if not quite under conditions of equality.