The remaining SSLC, higher secondary education (HSE), and vocational higher secondary education (VHSE) examinations will be held as scheduled from May 26 to 30. This was announced by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his press conference on Monday evening. Necessary travel arrangements, including use of school buses, will be made to transport students to exam centres.
Permission has been granted to government, aided, and unaided institutions to make arrangements for the conduct of examinations. They can open for exam-related work on Saturdays too. The exam notification was issued on May 13, ahead of the Union government’s decision on extending the lockdown. However, with intra-State travel permitted and public transport within districts too allowed, the government decided to stick to the published timetable for the exams. The SSLC and VHSE exams will begin on May 26 and HSE exams on May 27. Three papers are pending for the SSLC examinations – Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry.
13 lakh students
With SSLC and HSE exams to be held across morning and afternoon schedules, nearly 13 lakh students, besides teachers and other employees, will leave homes to appear for the examinations.
Besides private transport used by students and public transport, if need be schools buses or vans too will be arranged for the students.
A proper data collection in this regard has been carried out, Education Department officials said. Concerns have been raised about conducting the exams from May 26 in the wake of the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The Centre’s decision to conduct the remaining Central Board of Secondary Education examinations only in July has been pointed out. Lakhs of people, some of them belonging to families where people coming from abroad and other States are in home quarantine, will step out of their homes for the examinations, increasing the risk, a statement from the Kerala Pradesh School Teachers’ Union said, demanding that the government roll back its “hasty” decision.
