After announcing the much-awaited schedule of the SSC public examinations, Education Department officials now face the task of making arrangements for smooth and more importantly ‘safe’ conduct of the exams.
On Saturday, officials of the public examination wing received a message from the higher-ups to explore the possibility of allowing students to take the exams from wherever they are, in the wake of the lockdown.
Transport facility
A large number of students, especially the ones from the social welfare residential schools and other students from private schools who live in hostels, have gone home.
“There are many things directly linked to the successful conduct of the exams. For instance, transport facility. Students will be able to reach their respective hostels and then the exam centres only if public transport is restored by then,” says an official.
The scale of the arrangements in adherence to social distancing protocol is a big challenge, but the department is counting on its 1.9-lakh employee strength.
The outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown has forced the authorities to take a fresh look at the arrangements made already once in the past. The exam centres were identified and hall tickets were issued, 90 % of which were downloaded, but the rapid spread of the virus upset their plans.
The issue is being seen with a new lens. The 2,882 exam centres identified in the past may multiply to 4,500 for the 6,3,000 regular students from government schools taking the test across 13 districts of the State. Besides, there are about 8,000 students from private schools, taking the total number of students to 6, 39,000.
Education Officers at the district and mandal levels have been asked to identify additional examination centres keeping ‘social distancing’ in mind. The 260 exam centres identified in Krishna district earlier may now be increased to around 400 centres. The officials have been asked to revisit the old list of exam centres to check if any of them are in quarantine zones. Such centres should be removed from the exam centres list and new ones should be added.
A final list of the exam centres will be ready in the next three days, according to an official.