The Telangana High Court on Friday directed the state government to postpone the Secondary School Certificates (SSC) examinations, which began on Thursday in view of the corona virus pandemic. While directing the government to continue with the Hindi exam to be held on March 21, the High Court ordered the state government to reschedule the remaining exams that are to be held from March 23 to April 6.

The Union Human Resource Development Ministry asked the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), and all other boards to postpone the ongoing exams for Class 10 and 12. in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Acting on a petition, the High Court took the decision in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. About 5.3 lakh students are appearing for the Class 10 board exams in the state of which 2.7 lakh are boys and 2.6 lakh are girls. Of all the students, more than 5 lakh students are taking their exam as regular candidates while the rest 25 thousand students are taking it as private candidates.

Meanwhile, Telangana on Wednesday reported eight Covid-19 positive cases, including seven Indonesians, taking the total number of cases in the state so far to 13 and prompting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to call an emergency meeting on Thursday.

The State government had already directed the closure of schools and all educational institutions, cinema halls, malls, pubs to contain and tackle the spread of corona virus.