Ask any parent with children still at school what is mostly on his or her mind these days and the answer will inevitably be “the mid-year examinations”. Long afternoons and weekends have been spent at home behind a desk, and some have also opted not to send their children to their usual activities such as football, dancing, art, drama and religious doctrine lessons: all because of these exams.

Thousands of students, young and old, are currently undergoing their half-yearly examinations, and all parents say that it is not a happy time in the home. It will only be worse in June when the children will have to face their end-of-year examinations that will ultimately signify their promotion or failure.

There is no doubt that we put undue pressure on our children, particularly on the younger ones, those still in primary school. Because while it is understandable that secondary school children are old enough to face examinations (although there are many who question this too), primary school children should not be made to undergo such a psychological stress.

It would perhaps be better to evaluate their progress over the scholastic year, with some tests included here and there (but not one after the other in just one week), and allow them to enjoy themselves more at school. The real exams should only start once they are in secondary school and, again, age should be taken into consideration.

This system is successful in many other countries, in the sense that at the end of the day, students are still making it through to University and getting their degrees in spite of not having had to face examinations when they are still seven or eight years old. But it seems that we are not prepared to shift away from a system that has been ingrained in our education set-up, although we would do well to start thinking about it.

The way our education system is built is very often compared to a race for the survival of the fittest, and it is not the healthiest way of how children should be brought up. Children are psychologically suffering the situation, and even the brightest of boys and girls – those who stand the best chance of passing and getting good grades – spend sleepless nights before sitting for their examinations.

Examinations here start as early as Year 1, that is for children who are aged five or six. Should children of such a tender age be undergoing such tests? Is having examinations right through our education system the best way of developing our children’s minds? Isn’t there a better way of assessing their potential? Most of all, are examinations “helping” students mature, or are they putting them off education?

Abroad, learning is most of all fun, especially for children at primary level. But our primary schools are not fun at all, and this in a way does not encourage these young children to look forward to their schooling days, especially when the examinations are approaching fast.

Of course, as they grow up they will learn to handle the pressure better, but the underlying fear of examinations has often played dirty tricks on students. There have been several occasions when top class students do not do well in examinations simply because they are too terrified of them. It is also not the first time that mummies and daddies have been called to school to pick up their son or daughter because of a severe tummy-ache, which then turns out to be nothing more that fear and stress.

We do not seem to realise what we are putting our children through. It seems that we have all forgotten what it felt like on the eve of an examination when we ourselves were seven or eight years old.