Two senior high school students, Komang Nila Santi and Komang Tri, have spent the last 30 days in what they call full-alert mode ahead of the all-important National Examinations, spending their days, and most of their nights, studying.
The full-alert mode also requires them to open their ears wide for the tiniest hint or gossip on possible leakages of the examination questions of this year's National Examinations.
"Rumors are abundant on leakages and on how to acquire the exam questions before the exam even starts. It's a common thing before the examinations," Nila Santi said.
Leakages have been common occurrences in the country's school examination history. Students who will sit the exam spend numerous nights trying to get hold of the examination papers, mostly by purchasing them from individuals who have access to the material.
In the past, those individuals ranged from workers at printing houses where the government printed the material, staff from education agencies, to, in rare cases, schoolteachers.
For years the education authority has dealt with this problem by placing the examination papers under police custody as well as stationing armed police personnel in the buildings where the papers are stored.
As many as 154,502 students, including 38.157 senior high school students, will sit the National Examinations starting Monday.
Both Nila Santi and Komang Tri admitted the full-alert mode has exacted a disturbing toll on their physical and mental fitness. They revealed that some of their friends have found it very difficult to get a good night's sleep as the examination days draw closer.
"The examination is the only thing that we can think about right now," they said.
Their anxiety was further aggravated by the planned presence of the much-hyped independent team to supervise and monitor the examinations. The team comprises 360 lecturers from state and private universities in Bali.
"The more supervisors in the classroom, the more nervous we will get," Nila Santi said.
The anxiety suffered by some students was so overwhelming that they eventually sought professional help.
One of the island's most respected cardiologists, I Wayan Wita disclosed that in recent days several students had visited his private practice in Denpasar. All of them came with similar conditions; anxiety and irregular cardiac palpitations.
"All of them admitted that the very thought of having to sit the examination is the trigger for their conditions," Wita said.
He disclosed that students displaying high levels of anxiety and cardiac palpitations had begun knocking on his door two years ago.
Oka Negara, a physician cum social worker who works intensively with the island's youth, said the school and the government had made a mistake by presenting the National Examination as the Holy Grail of the country's education system.
"Moreover, the media loves to expose the number of students who didn't pass the National Examination as an ominous sign of failure (of the students' life and the education system),"he said.
"It is no wonder that the students are haunted with fear even before the exam begins."
