Students will have to answer questions in the SSLC exams to get marks and there will be no 'Corona Pass' for students like last year, said Karnataka's Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, BC Nagesh. Speaking with TNIE over a phone call on Thursday, January 20, the minister said that the issue with COVID-19 last year was different and students and schools faced severe problems almost throughout the academic year 2020-21.
 
"If we go on extending the facility, students will forget to study and it will lead to a bad trend," said the minister, adding that according to his sources, almost all schools in the state have completed 70 per cent of the syllabus and to further aid the students, 30 per cent of the syllabus has already been reduced.
 
"According to the opinion of the experts, we will see a drastic decrease in the number of COVID-19 cases in the last week of February or in the first week of March. The SSLC exams will take place in the last week of March and will go on until April 11. If the situation warrants a cancellation, we will take a call at that time," Nagesh said.
 
Speaking about the delay in issuing orders for the appointment of guest teachers in high schools, Nagesh said that though the orders were issued in the first week of November, instructions to appoint guest teachers had been given much before that.
 
"This time (2022-23) the orders of appointing guest teachers will be issued at the time of commencement of the academic year itself," he clarified. On transfer of teachers at the fag end of the academic year, Nagesh said that two or three years back, some of the teachers went to court against transfers made at that time and the court has disposed of the matter only a few months back.
 
"After the stay by the court, the teachers started requesting the transfer process. We have to respect the court order and the genuine demands of the teachers. Though we started the transfer process, we have not transferred the teachers where there was an acute shortage. Next year, everything will be studied and we will do everything possible to improve the quality of education, especially in the Kalyana Karnataka region," said the minister.