Bangalore: It is now all work and no play for 8.14 lakh students in the State who will be appearing for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination that commences on March 21.

Speaking to The Hindu on Saturday, T.M. Kumar, Director, Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board, said that all preparations had been made for the smooth conduct of the SSLC examination. "We have despatched the admission tickets to the students, formed clusters, etc. Everything is ready. We are just waiting for the examination to begin."

This year, of the 8.14 lakh students appearing for the examination, 4.43 lakh are boys and 3.71 lakh girls. The examination would be conducted at 2,569 centres in the State. The board had formed 469 clusters to which 1,444 centres would be attached.

Mr. Kumar said that based on the feedback received from teachers and students, the number of objective-type questions had been reduced for language papers. Another change this year was that under part one (objective-type questions) of the papers, the students, other than choosing the right option, would have to write the answers in the space provided in question-cum-answer booklet.

He also said that the board had combined Science I and Science II into one paper. "This was done mainly to mitigate the hardship faced by students from rural areas, who would have to travel long distances to reach the examination centres," he added.

Check on malpractices

Like last year, this year too there would be 12 versions of the question papers to check malpractices. There would also be three-tier flying squads — one headed by the Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police and Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat concerned; another headed by district officials at the taluk level; and the last headed by taluk officials at the hobli level, he said. Departmental squads would also go around the centres. As many as 32 officials of Joint Director rank and above had been appointed as nodal officers. "Another measure that we have introduced this year is that primary school teachers will be invigilating the examination," he said.

Sensitive centres, which had already been identified, would be videographed to ensure that students did not copy or flout the norms. Students caught copying and blatantly violating the rules would be debarred from taking two to six examinations, depending on the degree of malpractice, he added.

Mr. Kumar said that more than 26,500 teachers would be engaged in valuating the papers this year.

The remuneration rates for the teachers had been increased. Valuation centres would be set up in all the education districts in the State, he said.

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