BENGALURU: After rounds of consultation with department officials and stakeholders, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Suresh Kumar S on Friday announced that state board exams for second PUC students will be cancelled this year. Whereas, the class 10 SSLC examinations will be held in the third week of July.
Principal secretary of the department S.R. Umashankar, said that the rationale was Second PUC students had attempted their First PUC exams at a district level and hence there was an objective criteria to mark them. However the same was not available for SSLC students, as even ninth standard exams were not held last year due to the pandemic.
The minister said that three rounds of consultations were held with department officials before the decision was arrived at, and holding of the examination for SSLC students may change as per the situation. However a 20-day time frame will be given to them between the announcement of the schedule and holding of exams.
Should the SSLC exam be held as announced, grades for the students will be out by the first week of August. The examination will be in a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) model, and just two papers will be held for students -- a combination of core subjects (Maths, Science and Social Science) and a paper for languages. Each paper will be for 40 marks.
As many as 8.75 lakh students will be attending the SSLC examination this year, and in case students test positive due to the conducting of the exams, the state will take care of their medical expenses, as per the minister and principal secretary.
Meanwhile, the gradation system for second PUC students will be announced by the end of June, and those students unhappy with the system, can opt to write their board exam when it is conducted for private students and repeaters when the pandemic tapers off, as per Kumar.
The minister assured that no student will be failed in the SSLC and PUC exams.