The attendance percentage among girl Muslim students for the SSLC exams has remained unaffected at a 98.2% irrespective of the hijab ban, minister for primary and secondary education, BC Nagesh said on Wednesday.
Nagesh spoke on the sidelines of an event organized by the education department to address learning loss among children.
“There were apprehensions among several people that many Muslim girls had skipped examinations after the hijab controversy. We got a survey done to check the authenticity of this and have noted that the numbers have remained as high as usual,” he said.
The remaining two percent, he attributed to routine absenteeism. He said that the government took these statistics into account on one day only. “It is not right to segregate children by their caste. For us, they are all equal. We did this one day to understand if the claims are true.”
Meanwhile, this year’s SSLC exams have a very high rate of absenteeism. On an average, on any given exam day, out of the 8.69 lakh students who registered, 20,000 have remained absent.
Responding to this, Nagesh said, “We have seen a high registration of private candidates this year. Absenteeism among them is the highest. Just days before the exams, the department was flooded with calls over whether or not it will be an all-pass policy like last year. We are given to believe that private candidates registered out of the hope that just like during the pandemic times, all who registered will be declared as passed. This did not happen and hence they did not appear for exams,” he justified.
Also read: Hijab Row: Al-Qaeda’s statement reflects involvement, says Karnataka Home Minister
