SSLC and Class 12 examinations in Kerala are set to commence on Tuesday, and the Kerala government has issued guidelines to be followed by students, teachers and other officials at exam centres. The advisory also states that students who are coming from outside Kerala for the exams should be in institutional or home quarantine.
All students will be screened before entering the exam hall. Those students with mild flu-like symptoms will be seated in separate rooms.
The exams are scheduled to be held from May 26 to 30.
“Students from Lakshadweep and other states should be in home or institutional quarantine for 14 days from the time of arrival in Kerala. The parent or guardian who is accompanying them should also be under quarantine," the advisory released on Saturday stated.
Officials of the General Education Department told TNM that such students had to preferably come 14 days before the exams started. If they only reached a few days prior, an official said, “They can write the exam but they will have to return to their place of quarantine daily after the exam.”
If students who have returned from other states or who are already in quarantine experience mild flu-like symptoms, they will have to consult nearby health centres after the day's examination.
All high-risk category students — those in quarantine and who have come from outside the state — will have to undergo a 'sanitized corridor protocol'. As part of it, from the quarantine centres, the students and their parents (or guardian) will be brought to exam centres in dedicated vehicles arranged by schools and parent-teacher associations. After the exam similarly students will be taken back to the facility where they were quarantined. They will be screened and seated separately.
After writing the exam, students from other states and those under quarantine will not handover papers to the invigilators directly, but will have to deposit the paper inside the plastic bag kept in the hall. The sealed plastic bags with answer sheets will be transported to the evaluation centre the same day, and will be only taken out after seven days. The same method of collecting answer sheets is to be followed by symptomatic students even if they are not under quarantine and have been living in Kerala.
All symptomatic students residing within Kerala, and both symptomatic and asymptomatic students from outside Kerala, those under quarantine, and the invigilators of these students are directed to wear triple layer masks. The others can wear single-use surgical or cloth masks.
As per the direction, it is preferred that students from outside Kerala be allotted separate special examination centres. If separate centres could not be allotted, then separate toilet facilities should be provided for symptomatic students among them.
It also states that for those coming from hotspot regions, preference should be given to allot centres inside the hotspot itself. If their examination centre is outside the hotspot, such students would also have to follow the sanitized corridor protocol.
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