Students writing the II Pre-University (PU) exam as well as examination staff have been barred from wearing any dress indicating religious identity, such as hijab, according to Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh. The exam will be held from April 22 .
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Tuesday, the Minister made it clear that it was mandatory for the students to appear in their respective uniforms. However, private candidates and repeaters would be exempted from wearing uniforms. But it would be binding on them to abide by the direction of the High Court of Karnataka and notification of the State Government related to dress code, he said, indicating that they cannot wear hijab either.
Helpline
The Government has started a helpline for answering any clarification related to II PU exam. The helpline — 080-23080864 — will operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will have subject experts and counsellors who will answer queries.
A total of 6,84,255 candidates would be writing the exam that would be held from April 22 to May 18, the Minister said. This includes 6,00,519 regular candidates, 61,808 repeaters, and 21,928 private candidates, Mr. Nagesh said. Genderwise statistics show that boys outnumber girls marginally as 3,46,936 boys are writing the exam as against 3,37,319 girls.
Bengaluru South educational district accounts for the highest number of examination centres at 83 while Ramanagaram district has the least at 13, the Minister pointed out. Bengaluru South tops the list in terms of the number of candidates writing the exam — 58,836, while Kodagu has the least at 6,048 candidates.
Only the chief superintendents of examination centres would be allowed to carry a basic mobile phone without a camera while all other examination-related staff and students had been barred from carrying mobile phones with them to examination halls. All the processes related to examination would be carried out with police security, he said.
The students are allowed free travel in KSRTC and BMTC buses from their residence to the examination centre by showing their hall ticket, the Minister said. Evaluation of the answer scripts would be taken up in 81 centres across the State.
Moral sciences curriculum to have lessons from religion represented by ‘90% of students’
Steps would be taken to include moral science lessons from “religion represented by 90% of the students in schools” from the 2022-23 academic year Mr. Nagesh said.
However, he also insisted that the Government would not discriminate against religions while choosing stories for the moral sciences curriculum.
The Minister said the Bhagavad Gita would become part of the moral sciences curriculum along with the Panchatantra, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata. These lessons would not be part of examination, he made it clear.
On Tipu Sultan
The Minister also made it clear that the Government had not dropped lessons related to Tipu Sultan and title of ‘Tiger of Mysuru’ associated with him from school textbooks.
It may be noted that BJP MLA Appachhu Ranjan had submitted a requisition to the Government seeking that lessons related to Tipu be dropped. Accusing Tipu of indulging in bloodshed in Kodagu, he had sought that the negative aspects about the erstwhile ruler should also be brought out.
Bilingual option for diploma students
The Government was considering allowing diploma students to write their semester exams bi-lingually, using both Kannada and English. Mr. Nagesh said this was on the anvil since many students were unable to pass the exam only owing to language incompetence. Many students come from rural areas and they tend to fail, even though they are skilled because they do not know English, he said.
