Over 37,000 students take Plus Two exams in Coimbatore

The Plus Two public examinations began on Thursday with as many as 37,842 students, including 16,598 boys and 21,244 girls, taking the Language I paper in the district. The examinations seem to have commenced on an easy note as both Tamil and French students, the major Second Languages in the district, said that the paper was not difficult at all.

As many as 363 students (169 boys and 194 girls) failed to turn up for the examination, including 277 in Coimbatore Educational District and 86 in Pollachi Educational District.

District Collector Archana Patnaik visited the Presentation Girls Higher Secondary School, one of the venues for the examinations, and inspected the arrangements along with Chief Educational Officer A. Gnanagowri.

She told reporters that all arrangements have been made to ensure the smooth conduct of the examinations. Security has been provided to all the venues and armed police personnel would accompany the movement of questions papers and answer scripts. Several students were delayed by five to 10 minutes following a bus accident at Kovaipudur. Some others were also held up due to temple festival at Karamadai.

In Tirupur , examinations commenced at 62 centres. A total of 24,281 students, which include 23,369 students from 174 schools and 912 private students, enrolled for the examinations.

Of the total candidates, 210 did not turn up on the first day. Official sources told

The Hindu that 62 chief examiners were supervising the examinations in as many centres.

A total of 110 flying squads were constituted to check whether any malpractices occur in the examination halls.

In Udhagamandalam , official sources told The Hindu that 8,616 students, including 4,639 girls were scheduled to appear for the examinations in the district. However, 60 were absent.

Out of the 165 private candidates, only 146 turned up.

Stating that the number of schools was 72, the sources said that the total number of examination centres in Coonoor Educational District was 22 and in Gudalur Educational District - 12.

The Nilgiris revenue district has been divided into zones and 64 flying squads have been formed to ensure that the students do not resort to copying. The Nilgiris Collector P. Sankar who carried out a surprise inspection at a centre in the Gell Memorial Girls Higher Secondary School said that if there were any complaints relating to the examinations they can be conveyed to the officials concerned over phone number 0423 2443845.

(R. Sairam in

Coimbatore;

R. Vimal Kumar

in Tirupur; and

D. Radhakrishnan

in Udhagamandalam)