BENGALURU: With the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations to begin on Monday, tensions are high because of two factors - the hijab row, and this being the first offline final exams that the batch will be writing in three years.
The students will write the exams after being promoted directly from Classes 8 and 9. Around 8.73 lakh students are expected to write the examinations on Monday in 3,444 centres across Karnataka. Although the Karnataka high court has delivered its verdict on the hijab row less than two weeks ago, concerns surrounding the issue remains.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh reiterated on Sunday that hijabs would not be allowed inside the examination halls. “There will be a reexamination after a month for those missing out on the exams, but after that, there will be no chances to reappear. I’m confident that students will write the examinations. Hijabs will have to be removed once the students are within the campus,” he said on Sunday.
Meetings for the examination arrangement have been conducted with officials from the education and police departments and prohibitory orders will be imposed around test centres, the minister said.
“In case there are any issues, Block Educational Officers have been instructed to immediately contact police. The Home Department will also have officers at the test centres to prevent any untoward incident,” he said.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has also asked students to write the exams without any fear and asked
that they should focus on the examinations and their future.