Overnight school exams

Two pupils at local secondary school the Nicolson Institute had to sit their exams overnight. The overnighters were not allowed to contact their homes themselves, and were under constant supervision by teachers. The reason was some pretty atrocious timetabling, handed down from on high. The problem is that about 70% of people in this island speak Gaelic, and Gaelic is a popular subject for many pupils. This unfortunately clashed with other subjects, leading to youngsters having to sit 8 hours of exams in the morning, and another 4 in the afternoon. Now, the time for me to sit exams is long past, but I was quite drained after 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon when I sat my school-leaving exams in the 1980s.