BENGALURU: Education Minister B C Nagesh on Friday said students must appear for the 2nd PUC examinations, starting from March 9, in the prescribed uniform of their educational institution. This means that students cannot appear for the examinations wearing hijab, he said. He said since hijab is not a part of the prescribed uniform, students cannot wear it in the exam hall. “Rules have to be followed. The government and educational institutions are acting as per the set rules,” Nagesh told The New Indian Express.
On students approaching the Supreme Court seeking permission to wear the hijab, he said court orders will be adhered do. But till then, the set rules will have to be followed.
Nagesh was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of a software for the online procedure of registration of new primary and pre-primary schools among others. The minister said the procedures have been simplified and the number of days that are needed to get approvals has also been reduced.
Asked if there will be preventive arrest in case of malpractices and other illegalities, Nagesh said this was being done regularly and will continue. He also added that special checks will be done in sensitive areas of the state. While the Education Department has done this to bring in transparency, it has also listed that field inspection will be done only for five per cent of applications, which will be chosen randomly. However, it has been mandated that inspection will be photographed and videographed by a five-member committee.
According to department officials, applicants do not have to come to Bengaluru for clearance, but can apply online and the district DDPI has been delegated powers to issue the letter for renewal and the No Objection Certificate for affiliation. The institutions will have to upload the geo-tagged documents for this. These online records will be perused for various services. The geo tagged records will be available on public domain too for scrutiny.
DAYS REDUCED
For registration of new schools, the procedures have been reduced from eight to four days and the procedures to be completed has been reduced from 27 to 17 days. In case of first recognition, the procedure for the number of days required has been reduced from 27 to 14 and for renewal of recognition, it has been reduced from 27 to five days.