Students opting for Telugu medium in schools seem to be going down as the number appearing for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations this year in the regular mode has seen a dip by nearly 15,000.
However, overall candidates appearing for Telugu medium increased by around 45,000 on account of 1.5 lakh students appearing as private candidates. Similarly, English medium candidates have increased by nearly 60,000 this year. Interestingly, last year the number of English medium candidates grew by 1.45 lakhs compared to the year before.
Director of Government Examinations B. Manmadha Reddy said that 10,68,410 candidates will appear for SSC exams in regular mode while 1,55,620 are appearing as private candidates. The exams will be held from March 27 to April 15. He said students will be allowed 30 minutes late for the first two days only and if students of any particular school are found to be coming late the DEO will look into the reasons. Except the hall-tickets no other paper will be allowed into the exam hall in the SSC exams starting on March 27.
Hall-tickets can be downloaded from ‘www.bseap.org’ and schools can download the same if they have not received the hall-tickets already sent. Mr. Reddy said action would be initiated against teachers involved in malpractice under Act 25/97 that stipulates fines ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 1 lakh and imprisonment from three to seven years. Qualifying marks will be 20 instead of 35 for disabled students.
