The Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) and Higher Secondary Education (HSE) examinations will be held as scheduled from Tuesday despite a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the State.
Minister for Health K.K. Shylaja said at a press meet here on Monday that after discussions with the Minister for General Education and the General Education Secretary it had been decided that asymptomatic students in quarantine would be allowed to appear for the examinations in an isolated room.
Precautionary steps
Director of General Education (DGE) K. Jeevan Babu said there was no confirmation of any student appearing for the examinations having COVID-19.
However, the department had put in place precautionary measures in case any student did have COVID-19 or belonged to an infected family and was in isolation or quarantine.
In such cases, the department would look into each case individually and if needed, make arrangements for the student to appear for the Save A Year (SAY) examinations, Mr. Jeevan Babu said.
Asked about facilities being put in place to screen students at exam centres, he said it would be very difficult to make arrangements to screen hundreds of students. Moreover, advisory from the Health Department was in place in the regions from where COVID-19 cases had been reported, and these were available to schools too.
These are the first annual examinations to be held since the integration of the high school, higher secondary, and vocational higher secondary sections under the umbrella of the Directorate of General Education.
Morning exams
It is the first time in history that the examinations for all three are being held at the same time — in the morning.
While the SSLC and HSE examinations will go on till March 26, the vocational higher secondary examinations will continue till March 27.
The Director of General Education said that a total of 13.74 lakh students across all sections (SSLC/THSLC/AHSLC/Hearing impaired categories) registered for the examinations.
