My Experience in Class 9

 My Experience in Class 9

Shradheya Krishna Manandhar

DAV Shushil Kedia Bishwa Bharati Higher Secondary School

 

Class 9 of 2021/22

In a student’s life, Class 9 and 10 has a special importance. But in the year 2019 to 2021, the entire world was in the grip of COVID pandemic, and the academic calendar was severely affected. The academic session for 2021/22 started nearly two months late, only in June, than in the usual month of April, after the government allowed opening of the schools through online mode, due to the existing second wave of the COVID pandemic.

On 6th June, 2021, we excitedly started our new session of class 9 – through online mode. We got new subject teachers, just like always when we start our new grade and came to know them, but this time, all the teachers were only known to us virtually and physicaly meeting them was not possible. Thus there was seemingly “less bond between students and teachers”, nevertheless, the teachers tried to build a cordial bond with their students. From July 2021, we started using the Veda School App for online classes, which was more convenient than the previous system.

During the first few weeks of class 9 everything started in a slow pace. We did not receive our text books timely, so for the first two weeks, our teachers taught us without our books. But suddenly, we got the heat of class 9, and we were in constant pressure to manage our classes with a fast pace. I remember that suddenly the volumes of homeworks, especially in maths and optional maths, increased drastically to a point where we had to spend about 5 hours daily completing those two subject’s homeworks only. This was the first time I tasted continuous pressure, which I had never before experienced. I felt that when we spend some time in social media – we found our remaining works piled up many folds.

Homeworks for all other subjects also started to increase, so we were deprived of our free time. The teachers constantly demanded completed works. My parents were also surprised with the amount of answers written in Social Studies. It was tiresome indeed at first, but then slowly all this became a habit and it wasn’t much of a burden as it was when we started class 9. Due to online class, we could spare lot of our time in commuting to school, and non-class times at school. This was a good advantage of online classes – but had to spend most of our time in our desks with our books and notebooks.

The first few months of class 9 was hard for me. I felt that things got complicated all of a sudden. The amount of knowledge and information that we needed to remember in different subjects started increasing. The amount of formulae in Maths, Optional Maths, Science, Optional Science, Social Studies etc. suddenly became more than I had previously experienced. At first instance, it was difficult for me to understand most of the topics or concepts, unlike that I used to easily understand them in my previous lower grades – this made me nervous and uneasy of the subjects. Slowly on, only after practicing a few times did the difficult maths problems and concepts did become clearer and manageable. During examinations, I was stressed since I had to study till late nights in order to complete my revision. Bringing together all the subjects, it was difficult for me to adapt to the large amount of subject matter to remember in a short period of time.  With constant practice, I managed to score a full marks in Maths and Optional Maths in my 1st Periodic Exam.

Exams are quite a burden, it always used to be – but in class 9, it was more so. Due to already decreased working days due to late starting of session, the exams were frequently spaced. Time intervals between exams were quite short in some exams, - only a month of schooldays between some exams. These frequent exams did make us feel frustrated and tired but it taught me a very important thing -- it taught me that one has to face the obstacles and train yourself to work under pressure, since circumstances may not be in your favour all the time. I recall the saying “time and tide wait for no man”.

Online Class Works

The online classes due to second wave of COVID from start of new academic session in June 2021, to end of Tihar vacation in 8^th Nov. 2021. for a total of about 5 months continuously. In these 5 months we had two online exams. The 1^st Periodic Exam was held on 25th August 2021 after about 2 and half months of schooldays. The online exam was a 2-hour exam, for 25 marks weightage. Online exams were not inconvenient to the student, except that the exam papers must be photographed and upload in the system. When there is internet problem, this becomes a problem too. In my sister’s school, after uploading the exam papers, the original papers needed to be submitted in the school. This may be burdensome to the parents, but was convenient to the teachers who check the exam papers, because checking scanned exam papers for the teachers is understandably a difficult task.

Only a month after the 1^st Periodic Exam, we had to appear for the Half Yearly Exam which was held on 23^rd September 2021. The exam was a 3-hour exam which carried 75 marks. The online class continued till start of Dashain Vacation in 7^th October 2021. During the 13 days of Dashain vacation (7^th October to 19^th October), we were given some homeworks to keep us busy. Online classes were held for a week between Dashain and Tihar holidays (3^rd to 8^th November, 2021) during 20^th October to 2^nd November, 2021.

After Dashain-Tihar vacation, the school finally re-opened physically on November 8^th, 2021. It was the first time we could meet our friends and teachers. Meeting our friends after about 8 months, I was surprised to find them grow so much into adolescence – both physically and mentally. We also got to know our subject teachers better.

When physical school started, the teachers were more strict and also increased the speed of the classes -   so we were on the run once again. Only after 2 weeks of school, we had our 2^nd Periodic Exam from 28^th November to December 4^th 2021. This was our first physical exams in school, which was a 2-hour exam, for total marks of 75 marks. Immediately after this exams, studies continued as normal again.

Non-Academics

On the lighter side, we also had some fun events during these months. We saw a movie named, “Jungle Cruise”. We enjoyed the movie in a theater-like environment with some popcorn and juice, with our friends. The last day of school before the winter vacation was celebrated as a dance and potluck party. We tried to cheer each other up with jokes, talked about school, songs and dances. The girls danced in the hall, and the boys were the audience, until one boy joined the dance group and all the boys joined them. The boys would haphazardly noisily jumping and moving, while the girls were just showing off their exquisite dance moves to their friends. It was a fun day. During lunch we had a potluck party with soft drinks, fast food, cake and other snacks. The girls served the food, and the boys helped by eating in discipline. In between there were continuous burst of laugher for jokes and conversations. Many photos were clicked by our teachers and later shared to us. This event did make us release the stresses of our everyday schooldays.

During Vacations

The 3-week winter vacation started from 25^th December, 2021. During my winter vacation, my parents encouraged me to make a study report on the historical and cultural significance of Patan Durbar Square area, since we were living close to this historic area. For the report I studied and researched about the architecture, significance and history of various Malla era palaces, temples, bihars, mahabihars, monuments, housing structure, in Patan. I could write two articles on the basis of the information I gathered from visiting the site and also by researching in the web. This research work made me aware of the different aspects of the Patan historical and cultural importance. I also made a powerpoint presentation of my research work and hope to present before my class in future. With this knowledge about the Patan Durbar Square, I could deliver an explanation to one American uncle, who recently visited Kathmandu for the first time. This experience of explaining to a foreigner gave me confidence of explaining to other foreigner tourists coming to Patan Durbar Square. I have started to volunteer to give a guiding tour to tourists of Patan Durbar Square, and till now I have talked with 5 such tourists and will continue it during my free time. This has given me confidence to spontaneously talk with foreigners in a subject of my interest. 

I also visited different places with my family, and also alone, during my winter break. My family and I climbed the hill to the Palanchowk Bhagwati temple and it was a thrilling experience to hike the hills, rather than take a vehicle ride – though we were “lost” for half a day, because we took an uncommon track uphill. Similarly we also visited the Kulekhani reservoir (known as Indra Sarobhar). We saw the man-made high dam that stopped the water to form a large lake, which was more than 7 km in length. We took a refreshing boating ride and hiking. I was also allowed to go on a solo trip to different places within the Kathmandu valley. I visited the Godawari botanical garden and forests of Phulchowki, which I completely enjoyed. I also hiked the hills of Shivapuri National Park. I had a splendid experience in those places, where I experienced the beauty of nature.

During the winter vacation, the third wave of COVID struck (Omicron wave) broke out in Kathmandu valley and the government ordered a closedown of physical school, due to which online classes from 19^th January  to February 12^th, 2022, had to be conducted.

Finally the school was allowed to physically re-opened from 13^th February, 2022 and we were back to our studies and previous pace. After a month of class, the Pre-Final Exams was held from 6^th to 15^th March, 2022, physically in school. We had only 3 weeks to prepare for the Final Exams, after the Pre-Final Exam. We had to revise the entire one year’s syllabus for the Final Exam, and the time available was grossly not sufficient. Anyway, we could not do anything about it, except to manage the time available to us – studies till late nights was common. But I also learned that it is not good to over strain ourselves, because I got fever on the last day of my Pre-Final Exams, but could luckily appear for the exam.

Our Final Exams was held from 3^rd to 12^th April, 2022. I was very relieved after my last exam. My parents were also satisfied with my performance in grade 9.   We had our PTC (report card day distribution) on 23^rd April, 2022, and were ready to start our grade 10 from May 02, 2022.

 

The year 2019 to 2021 were difficult years of all citizen as well as students. The school students were able to take COVID vaccines 1^st dose in 16^th November, 2021, to safeguard against the disease. In the school year, there were some drawbacks this year, due to the COVID and online classes, extra-curricular activities such as different competitions, like essay writing competitions, literature and poem competitions, was not conducted.  Similarly, Family Jamboree, the Olympiad examinations were also cancelled. Thus students didn’t have many activities or events to cheer us up through the class days. This year we didn’t make our Academic Portfolio Files, as we used to do every year. Portfolio Files contained accounts of all the extra-curricular activities, along with our achievements etc. One of the main things we missed due to not making our Portfolio are our pictures, clicked through different times of the year and recorded in our files, for future memories. The student life pictures would stay as a long term memory if it had recorded in our Portfolios and we would get to remember these precious moment in the future.

Conclusion

I experienced many things in class 9. First thing is I understood the value of time. Increased work load and deadline to submission of assignments made me busy throughout the evenings. I had to minimize my distractions and had to spend more time to concentrated study. Homeworks with due dates really made me work consistently in order to submit my works on time. In class 9 the level of mainly Maths and Optional Maths grew drastically. I grew anxious and started to sometimes feel scared. This time around I started practicing Maths and also gradually improved and became confident. The second thing I have improved is studying under pressure. Due to frequent examinations with vast syllabus, I learnt to absorb much information in a short period of time, it includes concepts, definitions, dates, formulas etc. I sincerely hope that 2022/23 session of our class 10 days will not be shadowed by another wave of COVID, and we can concentrate in our studies. Lastly, in November 2022, we will be able to enjoy the FIFA World Cup Soccer tournament, and hope it does not hinder our preparation for our Final SEE Exams, to be held in April 2023.

 

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