The Hindu

Mangalore, Mar 16: Dakshina Kannada district is all set to conduct SSLC examinations starting from March 21 2007.

According to the Deputy Director of Public Instruction Shankarappa, 33,879 candidates will appear for the examinations for the year 2007. Of this, 17,528 are boys, 15,887 are girls and 464 students are repeating the exams.

The district will have a total of 86 examination centres out of which 19 will be in Mangalore city, 20 in Mangalore taluk, 14 in Buntwal, 13 in Puttur, 10 in Belthangady, 6 in Sullia and 4 in Moodbidri.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada M. Maheshwara Rao, who is in-charge of the examinations, there are three district-level vigilance squads each under the Deputy Commissioner, Chief Executive Officer of zilla panchayat and the Deputy Director of Public Instruction. Meanwhile students and their parents are battling against the several odds such as power failure. Power cuts have been rampant during the last ten days and students are complaining of inadequate revision time owing to power failure. The mounting heat is yet another hurdle.

The ICC world cup is another threat as students take long breaks to see the highlights or keep awake late in the night glued to the television, say parents. The bookstores in Mangalore have been selling printed question banks like hot cakes. With only few more days left for the examinations the students have dropped their textbooks, notes and guides and are concentrating on solving question papers of the previous years.