Hostel facility for students taking board exams

Chennai

As per the new schedule, the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exams for Class 10 students will be held from June 15 to June 25. Also, it was announced that Class 11 exams for Chemistry, Accountancy, and Geography, which could not be conducted, will be held on June 16. Similarly, Class 12 students, who were absent for the last exam held on March 24, can write their pending exams on June 18.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that thousands of students, especially from the backward areas, who had availed hostel facilities near the schools and got stuck in their native places, will be arriving at various places to appear for the exams.

He said at present about 1,500 government hostels are functioning across the State, which were used by over 85,000 students from backward classes, most backward classes, and denotified communities. Explaining the precautionary measures taken on the hostel premises, the official said hostels will be disinfected twice a day and toilets would be sanitised on a regular basis. Besides, hostel wardens should ensure that floors are mopped using at least one per cent hypochlorite solution every day.

“In addition, all students, who will be arriving from different places, will be screened for fever by using thermal scanner twice a day,” he said adding “this would be recorded in a register, which will be sent to the authorities concerned for monitoring purpose”. The official said after following prescribed sanitisation guidelines while preparing food in the mess, the cook should ensure proper sanitised dining area.

“The Director, Backward Class Welfare Department, will also arrange transport for the hostel inmates to and from the exam centres,” he said adding “the authorities will be in constant touch with the district school education officials to ensure the hostel inmates appear for exams without any hassle”.

Not to be postponed
 The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a PIL seeking postponement of Class 10 exams. The petitioner had argued that the students were not in the right frame of mind due to the pandemic and lockdown. However, the court dismissed the plea noting it cannot intervene in a policy decision. It said the postponement would increase the stress on students.

Hall tickets from today: Students can download hall tickets for SSLC exams from Thursday. It will be released on dge.tn.gov.in.