Lifers take SSLC exams

CHENNAI: The SSLC board examination, which began on Wednesday, saw a completely different set of examinees writing them - prison inmates. This was an exam with a difference, as for the first-time ever, central prisons were centres for SSLC examinations.

Conducted in two central prisons in the State, about 100 inmates took the examinations. In Chennai, about 59 inmates from Palayamkottai, Cuddalore, Vellore and Puzhal I and II sat for the exam, while about 42 inmates of the Madurai, Tiruchy, Pudukottai, Salem and Coimbatore jails wrote their exam at the Coimbatore Central Prison.

About 137 prisoner candidates had applied for hall tickets, out of which 100 got them. Prior to writing the exams, the candidates were given coaching by the district education authorities. They also took mock tests to prepare for the board exam.

Rajendran, a teacher at Arivozhi, a voluntary organisation, said that his outfit had provided study material to the examinees. “Most of them are in the age group of 25-40 and many of them are life convicts who had completely lost touch with academics. Most of them are confident that they will clear the examinations successfully,” he said.

DGP, Prisons, Natraj told Express that the exams went off smoothly and were conducted by invigilators from the Department of School Education. Around 80 per cent of the examinees are life convicts, he said. Shyam, one of the examinees, was from West Bengal. He who wrote the Hindi exam while the rest attempted Tamil Paper I. At 54, Shyam was the oldest examinee. The youngest was Rakesh Kumar, 17, a juvenile prisoner from Pudukottai, he informed.

The three halls where the examinations were conducted in Puzhal I were highly guarded and the flying squads were present during the examinations, Natraj told The New Indian Express.

The SSLC exams were conducted smoothly as students found the paper easy. Tamil teacher Vani Krishnaswamy said that the paper was not lengthy and students were able to finish the paper on time. The Oriental School Leaving Certificate Examinations too began on Wednesday.

ICSE Class X exam put off

The Geography Paper of Class X, Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) scheduled today has been postponed throughout the country to Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 11 am, according to Gerry Arathoon, Additional Secretary and Officiating Chief Executive and Secretary of ICSE. According to ICSE’s official website, the Geography paper scheduled today was wrongly opened at a centre on March 23, 2009, due to which the examination has been postponed.

17 caught cheating

As many as 17 students of SSLC Board were caught cheating by a flying squad from the Department of Government Examination, here on Wednesday. This includes three students who were caught on charges of impersonation throughout Tamil Nadu.