Telangana's Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations have been postponed indefinitely until further orders by the School Education Department.
An official order from the Department, released on Monday, states, “All the District Educational officers in the state are hereby informed that in view of the prevailing health situation that arised out of COVID-19 disease, as per the direction of the Honourable High Court of Telangana SSC Public examinations March, 2020 which were earlier scheduled to be held from 23rd March to 30th are postponed.”
The exams were postponed due to the extension of lockdown till April 14, 2020, as announced by the Centre.
Earlier, the remainder of the SSC examinations were scheduled to be held between March 31 and April 6. However, these were also postponed. The new dates for SSC and other examinations will be intimated later.
The SSC exams this year began on March 19 and the students had written their first two exams.
Meanwhile, an educationist, M Balakrishna, filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Telangana High Court, following which the court directed the state to postpone examinations and questioned how exams could be conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, in the state of Telangana, the number of cases has increased to 70, with one death and one recovery, as per the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Telangana.
The Chief Minister further said that the number of people under observation stood at 25,937. He added that with no arrivals from abroad and with restrictions in place during the lockdown, chances of new cases were lower. On Saturday, the state reported its first death due to coronavirus. A 74-year-old man from Hyderabad became the first person in the state to succumb to the virus. The man, who recently returned from New Delhi, died at a private hospital, but a later examination of his body showed that he was positive for COVID-19.
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