THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) is restarting its examinations for various posts on Thursday, the commission has reaffirmed that Covid-infected students would be allowed to sit in separate rooms instead of wearing PPE kits while appearing for the exam. As per the special arrangements, the students who tested positive the day before the examination will be allowed to sit in two separate rooms which are kept on standby at every centre. PPE kits will be provided to those who are on invigilation duty in rooms marked for Covid- positive candidates.
The PSC has sought the support of various departments, including health, home and education, for organising examinations during the pandemic by following all safety protocols. M K Sakeer, PSC chairman, told TNIE that the examinations would be conducted following Covid safety protocol. “Kerala PSC is the only institution which allowed Covid-infected candidates to sit in separate rooms for exams as PPE kits are not mandatory.
We had even conducted exams in an ambulance for the candidates last year”, he said. PSC has also arranged separate rooms for candidate sunder quarantine. The examinations to be conducted are those which were postponed due to pandemic. The priority in the first month will be to complete the examinations which were scheduled between April 23 and May 23 this year. The PSC will restart the examinations with a test for range forest officers, which has only 140 applicants. The commission has decided to postpone the examination for driver grade 2 that was scheduled to be held between July 10 and August 17. The post has 65,000 applicants, with close to 50 examination centres in some districts.