Assessment

With every pending journey, there's a fairy ending but with every term at school there was a final exam to do. When the welcome was done and grace period was gone, studying got more and more serious then prepping had to get very furious as the end was just around the corner and we all had to get bolder for the insurance of acceptable grades and assurance of a comfortable holiday to come after, so the end was to be justified by the means. Whatever subjects you surely had confidence in where the anchor to your hopeful excellence so the remaining rejected options had to be sorted in your plans if you wanted to survive the consequences awaiting the results of your assessment.

There was Beginning of term (BOT) that was widely disliked because its timing was too early and got so many unaware, so if your holiday was full of chilling and party just beware only one week was available to see yourself capable of saving your buttocks from the infamous "Kadaala" . Kadaala was more of an award ceremony for those with great academic achievement and a testimony of punishment to those that failed, therefore due to drastic levels of unpreparedness there were epic levels of countless victims to the "caning" session that graced that emotional occasion. Personally i loved it when all my bullies failed so I'd watch them painfully take on their appropriate rewards while I celebrate as a coward who wouldn't stand up to them but on one unlucky time I also served the dreadful same.

There were many kinds of people but the most touching were the ones that made endless sorrowful screams and shouts that I should admit were a bit haunting, the girls cried as they also tried to dodge the cane by dancing across the floor and begged with pitiful tears running down their sweet cheeks but failure knows no character so no mercy was shown by the executioners towards the practitioners. [Names reserved] There was this youthful man who had a deep coarse voice and a manly physique which was fit for an agriculture teacher, he wasn't a bad teacher he actually had a good character but when you see him in the line up you feel like you committed a terrible crime that deserves an excruciating reward, of course there were others like a maths teacher who played tricks with his sticks as he did his thing, a physics teacher who wore this hair raising dreadful face that created spiteful tension, a chemistry teacher that held a cane rarely but when he does the results are really devastating, along all those science teachers who are known for administering torture.

The ceremony was held in front of the school that sat in Shalom Gardens as the massacre went on at the D.H annex. The most famous people who got canned were the drivers who bravely led the train of guilty troops into the five pitstop ride of buttock whopping as they crawled under a thunderous row of tremendous canes and a few softer ones when lucky. Mr. Driver can never get any way out but the rest got breathing space as some teachers got tired and others smartly skipped some canes as dramatic girls were displaying pathetic sobbing also the cry babies that were emotional enough could be given passes or some timeouts to rest. Some smart heads wore extra pants or shorts underneath their pants and skirts but when caught the shame was befitting as they'd be forced to undress in private and come with their cane proof assets then be given double punishment. The only survivors were honourables/prefects and the sick or those who missed BOT.

The most dramatic or even presumably attractive thing was who can handle all canes and get up like James Bond. The most common stunt was where guys stood up gently, slid their palms against each other to clear the dirt then beat the dust off their clothes and swaggered proudly to their seats, the second best move was smirking and pocketing as you pranced away, but sadly this was only for the boys and the cool tom boys while the rest had to shed their tears in the cutest way possible. Some girls started crying at just the sight of the tools of correction then after unnecessary drama they got caned but to some it was a trick to get the teacher's mind off the fact that she had extra clothing underneath. The faces made were mostly dramatic and the way people laid down was empathetic. There was the cobra vibration position where they'd stretch the chest to head up while shivering and eyes squeeze when the weapon touched their buttocks, the solid plunk position where you'd lay down straight and perfectly inclined like posture of starting a push up, the helpless snake where one just goes stomach down and keep crawling to the next, not forgetting the twisting serpent where you lay down but keep shaking and wiggling across the ground out of fear as one tries to confuse the cane's proportionality, among so many others.

It was an entertaining time for best performers who got simple gifts then to survivors who were simply above average but to the rest it was all fun till it's your turn. Thankfully this practice was stopped and as I write now, its extinct so no need to worry as much but now i wonder what was put in place to replace such and keep the students in check. Truthfully this was scary to many but the Godzilla of examination fever was End of Year examinations.