Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 30: On an average, 25,000 students are not appearing for any of the subjects in the SSLC examination. The government as well as Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board which conducts this examination, are at a loss in explaining why this as been happening.

The students registering themselves and then failing to appear for the examination has been happening at such a magnitude since the last some years, and this year is not an exception. The current SSLC examination began on March 21 and will continue till April 4.

Out of 7.90 lac students who were to appear for language examination on March 21, 7.65 lac students appeared and 24,899 students remained absent. The absenteeism has remained almost steady with 27,193 students staying away from mathematics examination, 25,837 absenting from second language examination held on March 27, and 25,587 choosing not to take the examination in social science examination on Friday.

The board is going through a dilemma a it has reasons to believe that fake students are being registered for the examinations by headmasters of schools, block education officers, and district deputy directors of public instruction in a bid to retain their existence. At the same time, at this stage, it cannot be totally ruled out that the absentees could be genuine students too.

As per Karnataka Education Act, each class should have a minimum of 25 students. Some of the teachers in aided schools get pay directly from the government. Therefore if the number of students falls below the required level, such schools run the risk of losing recognition. In such a case, the schools have to register their SSLC students in other schools in order to enable them to appear for the examination without any hitch.

Sources in the board said that the possibility of the officials creating fake students to save their jobs cannot be ruled out altogether. Director of secondary education examination board, V Sumangala, said that the board has noticed that absentee students account for about 25,000 on an average, and that a thorough verification will bring out the truth behind this phenomenon.