All safety measures in place, says Mysuru DDPUE Geetha

Bengaluru / Mysuru: With just two days to go for the pending II PUC English paper exam (June 18), the Department of Pre-University Education has asked District-level officials to put all the safety measures in place as per the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) issued by the Health Department.

The English exam, which was initially scheduled to take place on Mar.23, was abruptly postponed due to COVID-19 scare. Now, the exam is scheduled to take place on June 18, nearly three months after the postponement.

As a beginning of the preparations, the Department has vacated all the Colleges that were used as COVID-19 Quarantine Centres. After getting the buildings vacated, the Department has been sanitising them daily twice since Sunday evening.

Each examination centre will have a Pharmacist and an ASHA worker to assist the students in case of medical emergency. Before entering the Examination Hall, every student will have to undergo thermal screening, get their hands sanitised and compulsorily wear face masks. Also, in order to maintain social distancing, additional class rooms are being used.

Students and the invigilation staff will be subjected to medical checkup before entering the exam hall and those with symptoms like cough, cold or fever are required to write the exam in a separate room.

Over 5.95 lakh students will be appearing for the exam in 1,016 centres across the State, including 430 in District Headquarters, 328 in Taluk centres and 258 in Hobli centres.

Meanwhile, the Department has also issued directions for safe transportation of answer scripts after the exam. As per the directions, the answer scripts must be directly transported to the respective Deputy Director’s Office or the evaluation centre the same day. All the in-charge officials at the centre are not allowed to use two-wheelers for transporting answer scripts and must take the assistance of Police for safe and secure transportation of answer scripts to respective centres.

Mysuru DDPUE H.R. Geetha speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, said that there are 50 centres in the district, out of which 26 are in Mysuru city alone. 

Pointing out that 31,569 students are appearing for the exam in the District, she said that while 504 students who left the city to their native places in the State following the lockdown have opted for centres nearest to their place of stay, 436 students from other districts have registered to appear in Mysuru District, for whom 22 additional exam halls have been identified. 

Stating that all measures in accordance with the Department directives are in place, the DDPUE said that all the gates in every centre will be opened and each student is required to compulsorily undergo thermal screening before checking into the exam hall.

 The English exam will take place between 10.15 am and 1.30 pm on June 18 under tight Police security and lockdown measures, she added.