Mangaluru : A total of 36,514 students will write SSLC examinations in Dakshina Kannada district from Monday. The exams will be held in 100 centres in the district. Out of the 36,514 students, as many as 33,337 are schoolchildren, 865 students are writing the exams privately, 1,825 are repeaters and 427 are repeaters writing the exam privately.

The exams will commence at 9.30 am and students have to be at the examination hall 30 minutes before the commencement of the exam. Thirty officials have been deployed to transport question papers to examination centres. The district does not have sensitive and hypersensitive centres.

The Deputy Commissioner has imposed prohibitory orders within 200 metres radius of the examination centres. All the photocopying centres have been asked to shut down during the examinations. To check malpractices, special squads have been formed in the district. DC A B Ibrahim said the district which was in 23rd position in the pass percentage in 2013 had slipped to 29th position in 2014. Several measures have been initiated to improve the pass percentage in the district. He said that with the measures initiated, the district is hoping to reach fifth position.

DDPI Walter D’Mellow said that special classes were conducted in schools for students who were weak in studies. Night class programme was conducted for slow learning SSLC students as a part of Mission 95 Plus in Puttur taluk. Around 244 students had attended the night classes which were conducted in 10 schools of the taluk.

Under Mission 95 Plus, teachers had focused on those who had scored between 0 and 35 marks in the mid-term exams. Out of the 5,997 students sitting for exams from 73 high schools in Puttur, about 2,750 students have been identified as those who scored 0 to 35 marks (below average). A programme called Vidyarthi Mane Mana Beti was launched in Puttur to instill confidence and make the child feel valued. A team of two teachers visited the houses either in the morning or evening to instill confidence.