Chennai: Around 8.37 lakh students from Tamil Nadu appeared for writing their Class 12 board exams on Thursday. This was the first time these students faced the boards since they were unable to write Class 10 and 11 board exams over the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Class 12 students in Puducherry also appeared for the exams on Thursday. In Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the exams are being conducted at 3,119 centres for Class 12 students.
Earlier, in a statement, Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Government Examinations said that 28,353 private students and 3,638 students with disabilities are set to appear for the board examinations from Thursday.
As many as 5.03 lakh students are appearing in the science stream, 2.70 lakh students from the commerce stream, 14,885 students from the arts stream and 47,882 students from the vocational stream.
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The Directorate has also set up a control room with helpline numbers for students, parents and the general public can assess. The numbers are 9498383081 and 9498383075.
However, there were initial hiccups since the state government kept reversing its decision on wearing masks for examination.
On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu government announced that students appearing for board exams must compulsorily wear masks to avoid spread of COVID-19. However, Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Radhakrishnan on Thursday said that it was not mandatory to wear masks since the seating arrangements in all classrooms are made in such a way that there will be physical distancing among students.
Meanwhile, the state also assured that it’ll not cut the power supply in the examination centres. Yet, an examination centre in Thanjavur experience powercut for over 10 minutes.
(With IANS inputs)