The Director of General Education (DGE) of Kerala announced on Saturday that the annual Onam examinations of schools will not be cancelled due to the floods. According to a report by Asianet News, DGE Jeevan Babu stated that mostly north Kerala districts were affected by the floods this year, so there was no need to cancel the examinations throughout the state.

Exactly a year after Kerala was hit by the worst deluge in the state’s history, floods hit the state in August. Heavy rains during the early days of this month led to floods and landslides in the districts of Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram and Idukki, killing over 100 people.

Jeevan Babu informed Asianet News that by Monday, all students who lost their school books will receive new books. “The books that were printed in excess for this academic year will be distributed to the flood-affected schools in north Kerala. Most excess books were collected from schools in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, the two districts of Kerala which were not affected by heavy rains or floods,” he said. 

He also added that if more books are required, then arrangements will be made for the books to be made available within a week.

As per the report, the Education Director has also requested the Kerala government to take measures to ensure that they find alternative locations to set up relief camps instead of schools. 

In August 2018, when the state of Kerala was hit by major floods, schools in several districts of the state were turned into relief camps and many of them lost a huge number of working days owing to this. Because of this, Onam examinations last year were conducted only after the schools reopened post Onam.