Man gets Rs 500 notes with one-side blank in MP

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday played down reports about confusion regarding valuation of Second Pre- University and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam papers.

"Creating confusion has become a habit. There was confusion before the exam, during the exam and now confusion about the valuation of the exam papers," Kumar told reporters in Ramanagara when asked about the confusion over the valuation of answer sheets.

He had gone there to inspect a few centres where the SSLC or the 10th standard exams are underway.

The minister reminded people not to speak about the abilities of the students with contempt.

"Our students have toiled hard and are enthusiastically appearing for the examination. They are eligible for the marks they will score. So we should not speak about our children with disrespect," Kumar said.

The Education Minister said he had spoken to many leaders including former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy on conducting the examinations.

"Kumaraswamy had insisted on postponing the examination. I personally spoke to him and apprised him about the steps taken by us. I told him that we will work with more sincerity to ensure the safety of the children," Kumar said.

The SSLC exam was scheduled to take place from March 27 but due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, it was postponed.

While the CBSE and a few other states either decided to give marks based on the students' performance in the previous examinations such as quarterly and half-yearly exams or gave general promotion to the students, Karnataka went ahead to hold the exam.

According to Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials, around 8.5 lakh students have enrolled this year for the SSLC examination.

The exams are being held at 2,879 exam centres across the state.

Prior to the SSLC examination, the last exam of the Second PUC was also conducted on June 18, which was also put on hold due to the lockdown.

Udupi, June 30: A girl who appeared for SSLC exams in three subjects tested positive for COVID-19 in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district today.

Sheshashayana Karinja, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) said that the 15-year-old girl had a headache and her parents took her for testing and she had tested positive for COVID-19.

She will appear for the remaining three subjects during the supplementary exams in August.

The room where the girl appeared for the exam had been sanitised. But exams would not be held in that room. All precautions have been taken in that exam centre in Kundapur taluk, Mr. Karinja said.

The other 19 students will be allowed to write their exams as there was a distance of one metre between them and there was no contact between the students during the exams, Mr. Karinja added.

It is learned that a couple of months ago, a Mumbai returnee who recovered from COVID-19 had visited the girl’s house. However, it is not clear that she got an infection from the Mumbai returnee.

It could be recalled here that a student from Hejamadi in Udupi district who was preparing for the Science exam had tested positive two days back and she is currently being treated at a hospital.

Bengaluru, May 22: Amid the fourth phase of nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, inter-state travel from Karnataka is now permitted with the consent of the receiving state, informed Praveen Sood, Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) and Inspector General (IG).

"Inter-state pass is not required to go out of Karnataka as long as you have the consent of the receiving state," he said.

The order follows MHA's recent announcement of relaxed guidelines amid the nationwide lockdown.

"Due to lockdown, migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons are stranded at different places. They would be allowed to move as under," read the new guidelines while asking states to designate nodal authorities to facilitate the interstate movement.

The Centre has extended the lockdown till May 31 across the country.