The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has decided to ban digital and smartwatches for the SSLC examination scheduled in March.
In a circular issued by the board, heads of all examination centres have been instructed to allow students to wear only analogue or mechanical watches.
V. Sumangala, Director of the KSEEB, said the watches of the students will be checked by the invigilators.
It had come to the notice of the board that some watches, called “cheat watches” have a storage unit where text files and images can be stored. They are available online for ₹7,000 and above.
While the board had initially decided to ban all watches, it later decided to ban only digital watches as students had stated that they would need a watch to keep track of time.
Watches have already been banned in several examinations including the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Common Entrance Test and examinations conducted by various universities.
