The Department of Pre-University education or Pre-University (PU) Board of Karnataka announced the postponement of practical exams that were scheduled to be held April 18 to May 18. The circular released on Sunday said “Several parents, students, lecturers and management of several colleges had requested the PU Board to postpone the exams”. This comes amid a massive surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in Karnataka

The circular further stated, “After a detailed discussion with senior officials, chief secretary of the government and the primary and secondary education minister about the matter, it was decided to postpone the exam.” The PU Board has directed the colleges to conduct practical examinations at their own facility, two days after the theory exams are completed. The theory exams are scheduled to start from May 24 and end on June 16.

In the midst of surging cases, several universities including Bangalore University in Bengaluru and Karnataka University in Dharwad had postponed exams. However, Bengaluru North and Visvesvaraya Technological Universities had not postponed their exams which had been a cause of worry for students and lecturers.

The VTU permitted the students to write the current semester’s exam in the next, without it being considered a repeated attempt. The students however, felt this was a bad idea as that would add to the number of subjects they had to study for next semester which could lead to them doing poorly in all the exams.

On Sunday, Karnataka reported 34,804 positive cases taking the state’s tally of active cases to 2,62,162 with 143 fresh deaths reported.  While Bengaluru reported 20, 733 new cases in the last 24 hours with 77 deaths.