Exam for II PUC students necessary: Suresh Kumar tells Centre

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said conducting of II PUC/grade 12 examinations was a necessity considering most of the students aspire to pursue professional courses.

Taking part in the meeting called by Union ministry for education on Sunday, Suresh Kumar said that, "It is necessary to conduct examinations for II PUC courses considering the fact that majority of these students are going to take up professional courses. It is important to conduct some sort of examinations for them."

"The examinations can be conducted at least in a simplified manner once the Covid-19 situation comes to control, but it is necessary to conduct the exams," said Suresh Kumar.

Explaining about the preparedness by Karnataka, the minister said, "Currently, we have postponed the II PUC exams considering the spike in Covid-19 cases across the state and decided to announce the fresh dates 15 to 20 days prior to the schedule."

He also mentioned that the students who cannot attend the exams due to Covid reasons will be given one more chance to write the exams in the current academic year itself.

Talking about simplifying the exams, the minister said, "Many are suggesting to simplify the exams and that process needs at least 45 days. Even the Union government has advised to simplify the exams. We will look into it once the situation comes to normalcy."

He said the Department of Pre University Education has completed the question paper printing process and if the exams are conducted in the month of July, then it is possible to announce results in the month of August.

In the meeting Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Textiles Minister Smriti Irani and other officials were present.

However the minister did not discuss anything about SSLC examinations which have been postponed for now.