SCHOOL and college examinations in Pakistan are not aboutbrains;they are about survival. Fans in the examination halls do not work. Chairs are cracked and useless. Sitting in exam halls is like sitting in an overheated pressure cooker.

Some students cry. Others faint. As for the invigilators, they laugh, joke, or stare coldly like guards watching criminals.

You ask for water? You are told it is not allowed. You ask a question. You are told to shut up and keep writing.

This nightmare begins even before the exams; starting with admit cards that sabotage everything. You wait in long queues, get the wrong details printed, or receive them too late. Names are wrong.

Roll numbers are missing. Examination centres are changed without any notice.

Students run from office to office, beggingforhelp.Ifthere is an error,no one helps you. You are told to `wait` or `come tomorrow`. Preparing for exams is more about logistics than academics.

There is another mess at the exam centres. Some papers start late. Othersstart early while students are still outside waiting to get in. Time is wasted. Answers are rushed. Confidence is crushed. And in the end, students are blamed for `not performing well`. But how can you perform when everything around you is designed to make you fail? Students are forced to bring their own clipboards, pens and rulers, because the exam centres have nothing. Bathrooms are either locked tight, or are so filthy that no one dares using them. There is no clean drinking water anywhere. When the power goes off, and it always does, there is no backup. If your pen runs out, or your paper flies off, you are blamed fornotbeingprepared.

And after all this abuse, this neglect, this cruelty, our society still wonders why suicide rates among students are rising.

The reasons are so obvious, folks.

Yumna Zahid Ali Karachi