The Karnataka government on Friday decided to cancel second-year pre-university (2nd PUC) exams due to the Covid pandemic. The state government will however hold Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) or Class 10 exams only for two papers-- one for core subjects and another for languages in the third week of July, if feasible, state education minister S Suresh Kumar said.
The Board will release dates of SSLC examination at least 20 days in advance. The students will be asked to answer multiple-choice type questions. Those who fail to appear in the SSLC examination due to issues related to COVID-19 will be given an opportunity to write the papers at a later date when the situation improves.
The state government has allocated over 6,000 centres to conduct SSLC exams. Only 10 to 12 students will be seated in each room, maintaining a distance of six feet. Teachers who act as invigilators will have to have been vaccinated.
All the students will have to wear N95 masks and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued last year by the state government will be followed.
“We are not doing these exams to fail anybody,” Mr Suresh Kumar said.
The government had earlier decided to promote the students of Class 11 (1st PUC) to the next class without examinations. Class 12 students are likely to be graded based on their marks in Class 10 and 11- with the gradation to be announced by end of June.
The decision comes after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) cancelled their board exams for Class 12 students earlier this week. A meeting was held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to discuss the issue of pending board exams.
