The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has written to the State government to ensure that all the children studying SSLC in all schools in the State appear for the SSLC examinations. The examination is scheduled to begin on March 25.
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“It is very alarming that one lakh children among the children enrolled in SSLC are not appearing for the SSLC examination,” member Sashidhara Kosambe said. He has written a letter to the State government with a complaint that over one lakh children who were in Class 10 had not filed applications for the SSLC examinations.
“There is a difference of 1,00,010 students who have enrolled in various schools for SSLC and those who have filled the examination forms. We think that the main reasons behind this are child marriage of girls and child labour of boys and girls. Other reasons are extreme poverty, backwardness and lack of awareness among parents,’‘ he said.
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“The State government and education department should take steps like information and communication campaigns to see that higher number of students, especially girls appear for the examination,” Mr Kosambe said.
The commission has obtained some information from the Karnataka school examination and evaluation board about the number of children appearing for the examination in various districts. The commission has obtained the number of students in various schools, from the education department.
As many as 9,96,293 are in SSLC class in the state but only 896283 are appearing for the examination. Among them are 50,5,330 boys in schools, but only 4,58,435 preparing for examinations and 490963 girls who are in school, but only 4,37,848 who have filled the forms.
However, in its reply, the Board has cautioned that the information may be incomplete. The examination process is on and the board is processing applications. Therefore, the data is as it is available as on January 25, it said.