Over 8.49 lakh Class 10 students appeared for the first language paper when the SSLC exams began in the State on Monday. A large number of parents were also found waiting outside the exam centres in the city to provide moral support to the students.
Most students that The Hindu spoke to mentioned that the language papers were easy but extremely lengthy. Abhishek N., a student of the Old Fort High School, who appeared for the Kannada exam, said, “The paper was easy. However, there were some tricky and unexpected questions in the grammar section.”
Another student, Ranjitha S., who took the Tamil paper, said, “As this is my first board exam, I was extremely tensed during the first 15 minutes. But later it was just like any another exam and it was an easy paper as I had prepared well.”
Some teachers also came to the exam centres where their students were taking the exams to encourage them. H.D. Mujawar, an Urdu teacher, said, “Most students I spoke to said that the paper was easy. But as the language paper is generally for 125 marks, they are lengthy.”
Next paper
The next paper, including science, Indian political science and music papers (Hindustani/ Carnatic), will be conducted on Wednesday.
Debarred
As many as 14 students have been debarred for indulging in malpractices during the exam on Monday in the State. A majority of the students, 10, were from Kolar district. Of the rest, two from Raichur and one each from Bijapur and Chickaballapur districts.
Speaking to The Hindu , Director of Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board (KSEEB) D. Venkateshiah said, “Depending on the nature of malpractice, we will decide for how many years they will remain debarred.”
Mr. Venkateshiah said that an invigilator in the Government High School, Kamalanagar village, Aland taluk, Gulbarga district, was suspended by the Deputy Director of Public Instruction for negligence during invigilation as one student had walked away in the middle of the exam with the answer paper.
