KARACHI: For some young faces, the frown lines ahead of the announcement of the Cambridge International O Level, IGCSE and ICE results on Tuesday deepened but for most those creases eased out and the smiles broadened. And those smiles were contagious. All the teachers, who had felt their students’ pain, watching them struggle during the last couple of years were also smiling with relief.

Speaking to the students prior to their seeing their results brought out nerves and jitters. “I’m hoping for good results in English, chemistry and biology, all the three subjects that I appeared in,” said Ahmed Hasan.

“I appeared in physics, chemistry and computer science but I’m more worried about chemistry,” said Abdul Basit.

“The chemistry paper was particularly difficult. There were no practicals. It was an ‘Alternative to Practical or ATP paper having all multiple choice questions,” said Syed Taha Ali.

“My English exam went well but I was not feeling well on the day I sat for the computer science paper,” Hamza Noman seemed to already have an excuse ready at hand in case things didn’t go his way.

Hamna Ali, who appeared for five papers — biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and English — was upbeat about all her results. She was also taking her Islamiat, Urdu and Pakistan studies exams now for which the results are expected in January. “I have faith in God that He will reward me for my hard work. And my parents have faith in me,” she smiled.

Laiba Shakil said that she was expecting best results in biology but was a bit nervous about her chemistry and English results. She also spoke about her future plans and shared that she wanted to proceed to Canada for higher studies.

Madam Batool Hussain, the Junior Vice Principal at Little Folks Paradise Cambridge School where all these students were awaiting their results, said that the past two years brought up testing time for teachers as well as the parents of these students. “We had started online classes for our students but were continuously being told by the parents that their children’s attitude towards their studies had changed. They thought that they were taking things too casually. Then we also had to motivate them and inform them that their online attendance was being counted,” she informed.

Madam Obaida Nusrat, the Senior Vice Principal of the same school, said that it was great that things were normalising now. “The students are happy to be back, more to see their friends than attend physical classes. They were also bored at home,” she added.

The school was among the first to disclose their results to their students around 11am as soon as Cambridge International released them online. All the students cleared their exams and the topper in that school was young Saffan Ahmed who got ‘A*’ in both Chemistry and Biology and an ‘A’ in English. All the other students rushed to congratulate him along with his teachers. Even the staff helper Saima Malik got dewy-eyed. “Saffan joined our school in kindergarten. He grew up before our eyes. He has always been a straight ‘A’ student so his result is no big surprise, but it is after all his big success. May he have many more,” she said.

Meanwhile, Laiba, the student who wanted to move to Canada got a ‘C’ in all the subjects that she appeared in. She was a little down until someone reminded her that Canada was spelt with a ‘C’, and that it had got to be a good omen, a sign of better things to come for her. Then she lit up again.

Similar scenes and emotions were witnessed in all other schools, which offer Cambridge programmes and qualifications to their students in Karachi.

Several students who received their results on Tuesday complained that they were not informed about the thresholds. Dawn was informed by the Cambridge Board that thresholds along with other documents will be shared with the schools via email shortly.

The Bai Virbaiji Soparivala (BVS) Parsi High School announced their results at 12.30pm, distributing individual printouts to the students. The school’s O Levels class teacher Uzma Shoaib pointed out that the students were nervous earlier about the MCQ papers. “They are conceptual exams. Those students who have consistently studied throughout the year do well in such exams while those who pick up their textbooks just ahead of the exams usually find the paper challenging. But after the results, most of the students were happy and satisfied by the outcomes. I only heard one student say that he will go for a recheck,” she said.

Principal of BVS Parsi High School, Ms Kermin Parakh, said that her school’s results were excellent mostly. “There were several ‘A’s in all subjects. We are now looking to January when the results of the exams our students are sitting for now will come,” she said.

BVS has classes from one to 11 only. The school’s chemistry and biology coordinator Ms Iram Sadiq said that they will miss their passing out students. “Many have already gotten into very good schools for their A Levels. It is a bitter sweet time for us as we say goodbye to our big boys, who we had here for 11 years,” she said.

At the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) School, Founder Principal Sami Mustafa was glad to share that their school got one of the best results in years. “We were very excited and our students thrilled. They have done extremely well under very difficult circumstances,” he said.

CAS School announced their results at 2pm. Headmaster Hasan Faraz said that 73 per cent of their students got ‘A’ and ‘A*’. “The highlight was the maths and English results. The ones who were struggling in the two subjects were also able to get ‘A’ and ‘B’. The language paper was also just one paper with essays and composition so it was not that simple too but the students did well,” he said that around 80 of their students appeared for the O Levels papers in June and July. “There were some who withdrew from taking the exams but we convinced most along with their parents to let them sit the exams. Now they feel much lighter,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2021