Class 10 and 12 state board exams will continue in Kerala, the Public Education Director of the state confirmed. This is despite all the extensive measures, regulations and precautions taken by the Kerala government to contain the spread of the COVID-19.
Apart from this, vocational exams and the university exams in Kerala will also continue.
Meanwhile, all the class 10 and 12 board exams of the Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE have been postponed to after March 31. All exams held by central universities have also been postponed for the time being. The Human Resource Development Ministry also ordered all ongoing evaluation work to be stopped in view of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
On March 10, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced the cancellation of school for students upto Class 7 across the state. However, he said that the examinations for students from classes 8 to 9, all Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations and class 11 and class 12 examinations will be held as scheduled.
State board examinations in Kerala began on March 10 with over 4.2 lakh students appearing for the exam. Health department officials took adequate measures to dispense hand sanitiser to students appearing for the exams, including college students writing their university examinations.
Kerala has had 27 positive cases of COVID-19, including the 3 cases which recovered. Out of the 2,550 samples of suspected cases sent for testing, samples of 2,140 people have returned negative. However, 7,623 new people were placed under home quarantine on Wednesday, making the total count of people under observation in homes 25,366.
Around 237 people are currently placed under isolation at various hospitals in the state. Kerala has also reported no new cases of the virus in the last two days. However the health department remains vigilant as the state expects to have more positive cases with the number of persons currently under observation.