After lots of delays and confusions, the Plus One higher secondary and vocational higher secondary examinations (VHSE) got off to a start in State schools on Friday morning.
In all, 4,17,598 students are appearing for the higher secondary examinations, though only 71,795 were slated to reach the examination centres for the papers scheduled on day 1 – Sociology, Anthropology, Electronic Service Technology (Old), and Electronic Systems.
Nearly 30,000 students are taking the Entrepreneurship Development examination in the vocational higher secondary stream. Taken together, more than one lakh students reached schools to appear for the Plus One examinations on Friday.
The examinations have been scheduled with intervals of one to five days between papers on the requests of students and parents. A cool-off time of 20 minutes is being allowed to students.
Directions have been issued to adhere to COVID-19 protocols strictly, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court direction to the State to take every necessary precaution.
School premises, examination halls, furniture all have been cleaned and disinfected with the support of the Health Department, parent-teacher associations, Fire and Rescue Services, voluntary organisations, local self-government institutions and so on. Directions have been given to sanitise classroom furniture on the exam days.
Thermal scanners will be used at the main school entrance to check students’ body temperature. Those with high body temperature or symptoms of illness will be seated in special classrooms.
Masks are mandatory. Sanitisers will be provided to students at the entrance. School layouts are to be displayed to allow students to reach examination halls without difficulties.
Only 20 students will be seated in a classroom while ensuring physical-distancing. Open and ventilated classrooms instead of air-conditioned ones should be used as examination halls. Sharing of equipment should be avoided.
Crowding, before and after examinations, will not be allowed. Health workers from the nearest primary or community health centre will be posted at the examination centres. COVID-positive students have been asked to inform school authorities beforehand so that invigilators too can be equipped with PPE kits.
The Plus One examinations were scheduled to be held from September 6 to 27, but the Supreme Court had stayed the physical examinations on September 3 citing the spread of COVID-19 in the State. After the State submitted an affidavit pointing out that that lack of digital equipment and connectivity issues made conduct of the examinations in online mode difficult, and that it had successfully conducted offline examinations of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University as well as JEE (Main), the court expressed satisfaction and gave the green signal for the conduct of the offline examinations.
The higher secondary examinations will go on till October 18, while the VHSE examinations will conclude on October 13.
