Candidates who have failed to clear their SSLC examinations in six attempts will not be considered as ‘repeater candidates’ from this academic year.
The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has decided to implement the rule from this year’s examinations, starting March 28, 2014.
In 2011, the then Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri had taken the decision given the large number of candidates under the repeaters category.
According to an official in the Board, there are candidates who have not passed even after 20 attempts. “It is really difficult for the Board to conduct exams for such candidates. To streamline this, we are implementing the rule from this year,” said Nagendra Kumar, Secretary, KSEEB. As per the rule, candidates have only six chances to clear the subjects. Even if a single subject is not cleared after the six attempts, they will have to register as a private candidate and write all the subjects again.
However, as per the data available with the Board, of eight lakh candidates appearing for SSLC exams every year, over 15 per cent are repeaters.
The Pre-University Education Department took a similar decision in 2012, which was implemented from the exams in March.