Karnataka education minister Suresh Kumar expresses satisfaction over smooth conduct of 2nd PUC exam

By Team Newsable | First Published Jun 19, 2020, 9:14 AM IST

The second year pre-university course (PUC) English paper examination in Karnataka was held on Thursday with social distancing and other safety norms, nearly three months after being postponed in March due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Bengaluru: Karnataka minister for primary and secondary education S Suresh Kumar on Thursday expressed satisfaction over the ''smooth conduct'' of the last remaining paper of the second pre-university examination (PUC) in the state.

The minister, however, admitted shortcomings at some examination centres, which he said would be a wakeup call to improve the exam management during the SSLC or class 10 exams, which would take place from June 25 to July 3.

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"The confusion or commotion happened only in eight to 10 centres out of 1,016 centres. Yet, it is a wakeup call for us to improve further. We will conduct it in a more planned way," Suresh Kumar told reporters after inspecting one of the exam centres here.

Lakhs of students in the second pre-university took up the last English examination at over a thousand exam centres after its postponement for three months due to coronavirus induced lockdown.

Also read: Coronavirus: Nearly 6 lakh students appear for II PUC English exam

The examination was scheduled on March 23 in various parts of the state. "Today about six lakh students took up the exam while about 8.5 lakh students will appear for the SSLC exam. In the PUC examination there were 1,016 centres whereas in SSLC, there will be 3,000 centres...," he said.

On students coming in hordes at some centres, Kumar said the administration would fix the responsibility for the bungling and take action accordingly. According to the department of pre-university education, 5.59 lakh students took up the examination at 1,016 centres across the state.

The department of pre-university education had issued the standard operating procedure for conducting the examination including sanitising the exam halls, the length of the benches, the number of students to be present in each room, thermal screening and usage of sanitisers and masks.

Yet social distancing was given a go by at some centres in different parts of the state as the students, staff and parents huddled under the tin roofs due to heavy downpour.

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