The Board of Higher Secondary Examination Kerala has revised the timetable for Higher Secondary Class 11 exams. Originally scheduled to be held from September 6, DHSE Plus one exams will now be held from September 24. This is in response to the Supreme Court verdict allowing the Kerala government to hold the Class 11 HS exams in offline mode.
The Kerala HS date-sheet have been revised for Arts and Vocational streams well. The Class 11 DHSE HS exams will start with Sociology, Anthropology, Electronic Service Technology (Old), and Electronic Systems on September 29 and end on October 18 with Home Science, Gandhian Studies, Philosophy, Journalism, Computer Science and Statistics. For Arts, the exams will begin with Main paper on September 24 and end with Part 2 Languages on October 13.
Students will get 20 minutes cool-off time for subjects and for subject like Biology, the cool-off time would be 25 minutes.
The top court on September 3 stayed for a week the state government's decision to conduct offline exams for Class 11 commencing from September 6 amid rising COVID cases, saying "there is an alarming situation in the state".
Noting that Kerala has one of the best medical infrastructures in the country, yet unable to contain Covid cases, the Supreme Court bench said that children of tender age cannot be “exposed to risk”.
"There is alarming situation in Kerala. It accounts for more than 70 per cent cases of the country, with around 35,000 daily cases. Children of tender age can't be exposed to risk", the bench led by Justice Khanwilkar said.
Justice CT Ravikumar also added to allow students from different parts of the state to mix together in exam centres [might] result in a super spread of COVID.
However, on Friday, September 17, the Supreme Court Bench said: “We are convinced by the explanation offered by the state and trust authorities will take all precautions and necessary steps so that no untoward situation is faced by students who are of tender age and appearing for the proposed examination. Dismissed."
