Bengaluru: Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB), which holds SSLC and II PU exams, is likely to oppose the change of exam dates as requested by the Census department.On Oct 22, the Census department had sent a letter to the department of school education and literacy to reschedule the commencement of the II PUC examinations to March 6, 2027, so as to ensure the availability of teachers for the population enumeration in Karnataka. As per the tentative timetable released by KSEAB, the exam is to start on Feb 27.While the Houselisting Operations (HILO) in the state was completed by May 15, 2026, the second phase of census 2027 – the population enumeration (PE) – is scheduled from Jan 25 to Feb 28, 2027, followed by the revision round from March 1-5.The census department said the PE exercise requires deployment of more than 1.5 lakh enumerators and supervisors across Karnataka. “A significant proportion of this manpower is expected to be deployed from the education department. The availability of the required field functionaries throughout the enumeration period, including the revisional round, is essential to ensure complete coverage, accuracy and reliability of the data collected, as well as the timely completion of the census operations,” the letter said. It has called PE an important national exercise, which provides comprehensive demographic, social and economic data on the population of the country, important for policy decisions and planning.KSEAB has now sent a file to state govt with its opinion. As per sources, KSEAB is against a change in dates. “If II PU exam dates change, it will affect SSLC exams, evaluation process for both the exams and the rest of the academic calendar like CET. The dates that have been published in the tentative timetable are those that are normally followed by the board every year,” said an official.A senior official from department of school education and literacy, said: “Students’ well-being and stress-free life are non-negotiables and it is our department’s responsibility. Hence, public examinations as per yearly schedule are the highest priority. As any change in its dates will have a cascading effect on students and their future, there will be no change in any examination dates.”“Jan and Feb are the time that the preparation exams are being held. It is when the last-minute revisions are held and especially the weak students are guided for better performance. If teachers are taken away during this period, it is going to affect the performance of the students drastically,” said the official.It may be recalled that teachers were away for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work from June till Oct 22. Most govt schools reeled under teacher shortage and teaching was hit hard. While the teachers were just beginning to return to classrooms, the letter for recruitment for Census came.The department is also pushing for Karnataka Teachers Non-Teaching Duties Bill that will regulate the deployment of teachers for non-educational duties like census and SIR.
