Bengaluru: As many as 8.77 lakh students across Karnataka will take the SSLC exam in 2,770 centres from Thursday. It is said that among the 8.77 lakh candidates, 4.69 lakh are boys, while 4.07 lakh are girls.

Earlier, Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board had decided not to allow students who arrive even 5 minutes late to the examination hall, but now under pressure from students, parents and general public, the board has decided to relax the norm and allow students who arrive even 15 minutes late till 9.45 am, said Department of Public Instruction Commissioner Sowjanya.

To ensure that students and teachers will not face any difficulties in conducting the SSLC examination, the board has set up a helpline, which can be contacted on 080-23310075, 76 till 2.30 pm.

As per the revised examination pattern, students this year will have to write the answers in a separate booklet and can take home the question paper. Until last year, answer sheets and question paper used to be part of one booklet. The new system has been introduced as a security measure, an officer said.

Students can use KSRTC and BMTC buses to reach their examination centres free of cost by producing their hall tickets to the bus crew.

While the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) had issued guidelines urging examination centres to install CCTV cameras, more than half of the centres do not have them. However, Sowjanya, said that deputy commissioners had been asked to conduct random checks at all examination centres, particularly those without CCTV cameras.