I have the day off today due to the National University Entrance Exams being held at my school. The KSAT’s are the equivalent to our HSC exams back home, except the High school students here only get one day to do the entire exam and it is a BIG DEAL.
And by big, I mean nation-wide-kind-of-big-deal. It was reported on the news yesterday that airline flights would be rescheduled so that no planes fly out during the listening exams (one scheduled in the morning and another scheduled in the afternoon) so that there would be no noise disruption to hinder the students’ ability to take the listening test. It’s such a big deal that mothers pray outside the school gates all day for their son or daughter. It’s such a big deal that the teachers of that grade go to the temples during the exam day to worship and pray for their students’ exam scores. It’s such a big deal that police cars sometimes escort students running late to school, and workers are allowed to go to work at 9am instead of the usual early morning start (usually around 7.30 or 8.30am) so that there aren’t any traffic jams on the streets and students and their families are able to drive them to school in time.
It’s such a big deal that I–and a couple of other teachers who aren’t supervising the exams–get the day off. 
Sweet or what?
I love exam days here.
