K’taka to hold SSLC exams from July 3rd week, 2nd PUC exam scrapped

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to hold the SSLC ((Secondary School Leaving Certificate) or class 10 examinations in the third week of July while cancelling the second year pre-university college(PUC) exams, S Suresh Kumar, state of primary and secondary education informed on Friday

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has decided to hold the SSLC ((Secondary School Leaving Certificate) or class 10 examinations in the third week of July while cancelling the second year pre-university college(PUC) exams, S Suresh Kumar, state of primary and secondary education informed on Friday.

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“This year, SSLC examination will be held and the question paper will contain only multiple choice questions,” a statement from the minister’s office said.

Kumar, while addressing the media, said that the department has come up with a model in which all six subjects will be squeezed into just two papers.

The first paper would include mathematics, science and social science and each topic will have a maximum of 40 mark’s that takes the total to 120.

The same grading would be used for all three language papers, the minister added.

He said that the exam is being conducted to help children choose a stream for their further studies in either science, commerce and arts.

“Conducting examinations in the usual elaborative manner during these troubled times poses a lot of risk for the student community. Their lives are most precious for us and their health assumes paramount importance. However, since we don’t have previous assessment models for these students, it is inevitable for us to somehow evaluate their performance and hence a most simple solution has been formulated,” the statement stated. The two papers, to be held on two different days with at least 3 days gap in between, will have optical mark readers, and it will have multiple choice answers. Kumar said that model question papers will be released shortly.

The decision comes in the wake of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic crisis in Karnataka, which is among the worst impacted regions in the country.

The exams for SSLC will be held in the third week of July and grading for PUC students will be announced by the last week of June. “We are not holding the PUC exams this year. The grading will be based on their performance at the district level assessment in the first pre-university examination,” Suresh said while addressing a press conference. “The second pre-university college students would be promoted to the next level,” he added.

The minister said that the government is doubling the number of examination centres from 3,000 to 6,000 this time to ensure proper safety precautions are taken for the same.

“Only 12 students per room would be accommodated and only one student per desk. At least a six feet distance will be maintained between each student,” the minister said.

All students will be provided N 95 masks and all teachers will be vaccinated; the minister added.

Kumar also said that the primary and secondary education are now deliberating on how they can innovate to bring in periodical review practices like CBSE and ICSE. He also added that it is unlikely that any student will be held back in these two grades.

However, the decision to hold exams for class 10 received criticism from former Karnataka chief minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy. “It is really insane on the part of the state government to hold SSLC exams while cancelling the II Year PUC exams in the wake of the prevailing Covid situation.

People of the state are laughing at such a mad decision of the education minister who is acting as if he is out of his mind,” Kumaraswamy posted on Twitter.

He said that the government should withdraw the “irrational decision” and “reign in” the education minister “who is playing with the lives of children.”

“It is mainly due to the fear of the Prime Minister that II PU exams were cancelled. Is this learned person who is eager to hold exams for SSLC students an education minister or the examination minister who is testing the patience of parents and students,” he added..