New Delhi: The Kerala Government has urged the Supreme Court of India to allow the conduct of the Plus One (Class 11) exams in offline mode. In an affidavit submitted before the apex court, the state said that holding of online exams was impractical as a large number of students lacked access to computers and the Internet.
The affidavit, submitted by Principal Secretary in the General Education Department A P M Muhammed Haneesh on behalf of the state government, also said that evaluation could not be made based on the model exam. It added that the government was hopeful of completing the exam before the likely third wave of the COVID-19 predicted in October.
The state pointed out to the apex court that it had successfully conducted the BTech exam of the Kerala Technical University (KTU) in offline mode in July this year. Around one lakh students had taken these exams, said the affidavit.
Moreover, around seven lakh candidates had appeared for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering admissions around the country in late August and early September. Kerala informed the court that it would be able to conduct the Plus One exam on similar lines, following all COVID-19 protocols.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar has posted the case for a hearing on September 13. The court had earlier stayed the conduct of the Plus One exam in Kerala, which had been scheduled from September 6, till September 13 after receiving petitions drawing the attention of the court to the COVID-19 situation in the state. In his order deferring the exam, Justice Khanwilkar had observed that Kerala accounted for around 70 per cent of all the COVID-19 cases in the country.