BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Wednesday set in motion the process to conduct the Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination or the 10th standard examination in July by releasing the standard operating procedure (SOP) for teachers.
While releasing the SOP, the Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said those in charge of the exam centres should abide by the SOP.
The SOP mandated sanitising the exam halls, furniture and toilets daily by spraying disinfectant solution before and after the exam.
There would be 12 children in the examination hall and only one student in each desk to maintain physical distancing.
Also, the SOP ordered students not to gather at any time.
In the rural areas, arrangements should be made to ensure that the test centres should be created in a manner that students need not go to the taluk-level to appear for the exam, the SOP said.
Vaccinating the teachers, staff and officials involved in conducting the examination with the cooperation of the district administration is mandatory, the Minister said adding that they need to make sure that they get a dose of the vaccine well before the exams.
According to Kumar, there should be two rooms reserved for candidates suffering from cough, common cold and flu.
There should be a thermal scanner, pulse oximeter, first aid boxes and hand sanitisers at the entrance.
Students would be given masks at the entrance of the health counters in the exam halls.
Also, there would be ambulances reserved in each Taluk for those involved in the SSLC examination.
There would also be a COVID care centre for those COVID- positive students to write the exam.
If anyone in the family is infected and the candidate is in isolation and is found to be healthy, he or she would be allowed to write the test at the nearby COVID Care Centre after testing the student.
Unlike other States, the Karnataka government decided to conduct the exam in two phases where objective type questions would be asked.
The government said the 10th exam cannot be avoided as it is crucial to decide the stream in which a student should study.
Last year, the government had successfully conducted the SSLC exams despite the fear expressed by the opposition parties and experts.
The state reported 4,436 new COVID-19 cases and 123 deaths on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections to 28.19 lakh and the toll to 34,287.
The day also saw 6,455 discharges, continuing to outnumber the fresh cases, taking the total number of recoveries in the state so far to 26,68,705.
Out of 4,436 new cases reported on Wednesday, 1,008 were from Bengaluru Urban, as the city saw 1,071 discharges and 24 deaths.
The total number of active cases in the state stood at 1,16,450.
While the positivity rate stood at 2.59 per cent, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 2.77 per cent.
Out of 123 deaths reported on Wednesday, 24 were from Bengaluru Urban, Mysuru (18), Dakshina Kannada (13), Ballari (10), Dharwad (9), followed by others.
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 1,008, Dakshina Kannada 538, Mysuru 499, Hassan 301, followed by others.
Bengaluru Urban district headed the list of positive cases with a total of 12,08,104, followed by Mysuru 1,63,614 and Tumakuru 1,14,137.
Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban was on top with 11,23,323, followed by Mysuru 1,55,385 and Tumakuru 1,10,278.
Cumulatively a total of 3,31,89,023 samples have been tested in the state so far, out of which 1,70,654 were done on Wednesday alone.