Karnataka’s Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, S Suresh Kumar has announced that Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations will be held as per schedule. The examinations are slated to be held from June 21 to July 5. In a statement issued on Tuesday, owing to the surging COVID-19 cases in the state, the minister also said that for Classes 1 to 9, a continuous and comprehensive evaluation procedure will be the deciding factor for the promotion of children to the next class and students cannot be asked to physically appear for the same. Schools have been asked to complete the result process by April 30 2021, the Education Minister said in a statement.
For Classes 1 to 8 (for those primary schools with Class 7 and Class 8 included), the summer holidays will be from May 1 to June 14 and schools will reopen on June 15. For classes 8 and 9, the summer holidays will be from May 1 to July 15. Summer holidays for high school teachers will be from June 15 to July 14. The academic year 2021-22 for high schools will commence from July 15.
This decision comes even as many students have been asking the government to postpone all exams in the state owing to the increasing COVID-19 cases in the state. Karnataka reported 15,785 new COVID-19 cases and a record 146 fatalities over 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 11,76,850 and the death toll to 13,497, the Health Department said on Monday. Bengaluru Urban alone recorded 9,618 new infections.
Earlier, Bangalore University had postponed all under-graduate, post-graduate and engineering examinations that were scheduled to begin on April 19 in the wake of the RTC workers’ strike and over the COVID-19 situation in the state as well.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan had on April 12 announced that all university-level examinations, including graduation, post-graduation, engineering, diploma and other courses, would be conducted as scheduled.
The ICSE and CBSE have both cancelled Class 10 Board examinations, while Class 12 examinations of both boards will be held at a later date, which will be announced at least 15 days before the examinations begin.