About 6,000 candidates in the district sat for the Hindi examinations conducted by the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, on Sunday.
Students appeared at four centres: Rajaji Vidyalaya, Mahatma Gandhi Centenary Vidyalaya, National College Higher Secondary School, and the Girls' Higher Secondary School at BHEL in Kailasapuram Township.
The number of candidates has increased by 800 in the Tiruchi centre when compared to the August examination last year, the Sabha's Tiruchi centre secretary G.Selvarajan, said.
The number of enrolments had gone up significantly throughout the State for the August examination; 73,735 candidates wrote the examinations at 178 centres.
Last year, nearly 61,900 candidates sat for the exam. Usually, more number of candidates turn up for the February examinations; they numbered 1,28,080 and 1,41,653 for the 2010 and 2011 examinations respectively.
The preliminary examinations: Prathmic, Madhyama, Rashtrabasha and Praveshika are conducted by the provincial branch, and the higher examinations: Visharad and Praveen, both in two parts, by the Dakshin Bharat Hindu Prachar Sabha, Chennai. In the higher-level examinations, regional languages – Tamil in Tamil Nadu – is a compulsory paper.
Founded in 1918 by the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, the Sabha's selfless service was recognised by the Parliament of India through a declaration in 1964 certifying it as an Institution of National Importance.
The Sabha's regional offices were started in 1936 with headquarters in Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, Cochin in Kerala, and Dharwad in Karnataka.
In the 75{+t}{+h} year, Tamil Nadu had marched ahead of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in sending highest number of students for the Sabha's examinations.
