12,000 teachers skip SSLC evaluation, to face action

The Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) struggled to finish the evaluation of SSLC exam answer sheets on time as thousands of teachers skipped the work.

Of the 63,000 teachers who were called for evaluation duties, as many as 12,000 remained absent with the first-language subject of English seeing the most absentees.

The exam was held from March 28 to April 11 while the evaluation took place between April 21 and May 4, a delay of four days.

The delay has pushed the announcement of results. The authorities, who had earlier decided to declare the results on May 15, will do so only on May 19.

Taking the absenteeism seriously, the KSEEB has started issuing notices to teachers who skipped the work. The board is asking them to explain their absence. Based on the teachers' responses, a decision on disciplinary action against them will be taken, said a senior official in the KSEEB.

"If they cite genuine reasons like health issues, marriages of kins, tragedies in the family, etc, then they will be given an exemption," the official said.

Repeat offenders and those who debunked the work without any valid reason will be penalised. The penalty will be determined on the basis of the reason they cite, the official added.

Besides absenteeism, there was also a shortage of evaluators for the first-language English subject.