In all, 20 COVID-19 positive students were among the 44,159 students who wrote the SSLC examination in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi on Monday. They wrote the exam in COVID Care Centres. A total of 30,569 students wrote the exam in Dakshina Kannada, while 13,590 students gave it in Udupi district. Students answered multiple choice question papers related to Mathematics, Science and Social Science core subjects.
In Dakshina Kannada, 28,088 students of those appearing were regular and 716 private candidates. As many as 1,765 students were repeaters. As many as 32 students, who were unwell, wrote the examination in isolated rooms at examination centres, while 15 COVID-19 positive students wrote it at COVID Care Centres.
In Udupi district, 12,866 regular students answered questions related to the three core subjects. Among the private candidates, 204 students answered the Mathematics paper, 220 answered the Science paper and 206 solved the Social Science paper. Among repeaters, 520 wrote Mathematics, 555 and 356 students answered the Science and Social Science papers, respectively. And, five COVID-19 patients wrote the examination in the district.
Udupi Deputy Director of Public Instruction N.H. Nagur said that most of the examination centres in the district had a festive atmosphere and students were welcomed to exam halls with roses. After the end of examination, students were given biscuits and fruits. Belthangady Block Education Officer H.S. Virupakshappa said that Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja had arranged for distribution of biscuits and fruits to students in the taluk. Among instances of initiatives by teachers to facilitate students in the twin districts, included that of a member of the staff at St. Theresa College in Belthangady who took an autorickshaw to the house of a repeater five kilometres away and brought him to the examination centre. The staff member had noticed that the student was absent during a medical test being carried out before students were allowed into the classrooms. Similarly, Sullia Block Education Officer S.P. Mahadev said that Vice-Principal of Karnataka Public School took his vehicle to the house of a repeater 15 km away and brought him to the examination centre. A teacher at an examination centre in Sullia took a student, who was injured in a motor vehicle accident, to a nearby hospital and brought him back to the centre just 10 minutes before the start of the examination.
Many students found the multiple choice questions on Monday easy. Akash Ameen from Madhusudhan Kushe School and Zohora Hessa from St. Mary’s School from Mangaluru said that they had several rounds of answering model question papers to get used to this new question paper format. Nazarat Fathima from Capitanio School said that her school had sent students PDFs of the model question papers.