Class 10 students in containment zones will now be allowed to write the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination, but will be assigned separate classrooms at their centres.
Earlier, it had been decided that students in containment zones would not be allowed to write the June-July exam and would instead appear for the supplementary exam as fresh candidates. However, Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has decided against this in the backdrop of the rising number of containment zones in Bengaluru and in other parts of the State.
Sources in the KSEEB said that if exam centres were located in containment zones, they would be shifted outside of it. “The Deputy Directors of Public Instruction have been asked to identify such centres. We will also keep buses ready outside these centres so that if students turn up at their old exam centre in the containment zone, they can board the bus, which will ferry them to the new centre,” an official said.
More than 8.4 lakh students have registered for the exam, which will begin on June 25 and end on July 4.
Students will have to undergo thermal screening, wear masks, use sanitisers, and practice social distancing at the exam centres.
Parents anxious
The decision to allow students from containment zones to appear for the exam has not gone down well with families whose houses are in “safe areas”. Many fear it will increase their risk of contracting COVID-19.
Rakesh S., a parent, said, “Even if students in containment zones are made to sit in a separate classroom, our children may come in contact with them outside the exam hall or before entering these classrooms. We are extremely worried about the health of our children.”
For students in Goa
The KSEEB has decided to have two exam centres in Goa for the benefit of 57 students.
In the past, the students would come to Karwar to write the exam. “Both the schools are Kannada-medium ones on the Goa border. The two centres will be located at Zuarinagar and Mangor Hill. The decision has been taken as the number of COVID-19 cases is on the rise. We don’t want them [the students] to travel several kilometres to write the exam,” an official said.
However, students from Kasaragod will be provided transportation to the exam centres located in Karnataka.
