SSLC exams begin in Karnataka amid COVID concerns
Bengaluru: The two-day Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) or class 10 exams began across the state on Monday, amid COVID-19 concerns.
As many as 8.76 lakh students have registered for the examination.
This is for the second consecutive year that the Department of Primary and Secondary Education is conducting the SSLC examinations amid the pandemic.
Due to COVID-19 situation, for the first time, the examinations have been reduced from six days to two days, with students writing one paper for three subjects per day.
On Monday, students are writing the exam for core subjects mathematics, science and social science, while on July 22 there will be exams for languages such as Kannada, English, Hindi, Sanskrit.
The department this year has increased the number of examination centres and teachers on duty, Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials have said, adding that as many as 1.19 lakh staff have been deployed for 73,064 exam halls in 4,885 centres across the state.
Special arrangements have been made for 23 students who have tested positive for COVID-19, to write the exams at the COVID Care Centres in their respective districts.
All the necessary arrangementshave been made at the exam centres keeping the pandemic situation in mind, wherein only 12 students, one per bench, will be seated in a classroom and those with symptoms will be allowed to take the exam in a separate room, officials said.
All the staff involved in examination duty have received at least one dose of vaccination, the official added.
The exam will be in the form of multiple-choice questions and the students will have to mark the right answers on the Optical Mark Reading (OMR) sheet given to them.
Wishing all the students appearing for SSLC exams good luck, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in a tweet said, "I urge my young friends to relax and focus on exams. I assure parents that our government has made all arrangements to ensure exams are held safely."
Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar too in a tweet assured parents that the exam centres are safe for students and the government has taken all necessary measures to conduct the exams in a safe environment.
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Jasprit Bumrah continues to top ICC Test ranking for bowlers
Dubai, Jan 22 (PTI): India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah continued to remain the undisputed No. 1 Test bowler, while Ravindra Jadeja maintained his top spot in the all-rounders' category, in the latest ICC rankings released on Wednesday.
Bumrah, who had made history ahead of the fifth and final Border-Gavaskar Test against Australia in January by recording the highest-ever ICC Rankings rating for an Indian bowler at 907 points, is currently on a career-best points tally of 908.
Australia's Pat Cummins (841) and South Africa's Kagiso Rabada (837) are placed second and third respectively.
Pakistan's Noman Ali (761) broke into the top-10 after an impressive six-wicket haul in the first Test against the West Indies in Multan.
There was no movement to the top-10 all-rounders list in the Test format, with Jadeja (400 ratings points) retaining the top spot, followed by South Africa's Marco Jansen (294) and Bangladesh's Mehidy Hasan (263).
