Thiruvananthapuram, Tuesday 10 March 2009: As many as 4,46,625 students will appear for this year’s Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination which will begin today.

Out of the total number of candidates, 2,21,053 are boys and 2,25,572 are girls. In addition to this, 8,750 candidates are taking the exam under the private new-scheme category. Close to 3,74,532 students will take the examinations in their mother tongue and more than 66,231 candidates in English.

A significant number of students will also take the examination in Tamil and Telugu. The Tirur educational district in Malappuram tops the chart with the maximum number of candidates (34,607) writing the exam. The lowest is in Kuttanad (2,407). The examination will also take place in 2,731 centres in the Gulf and in the Lakshadweep islands.

To ensure maximum security, question papers are stored inside vaults of nationalised banks and district treasuries. District level-monitoring committees headed by District Collectors will ensure hassle-free transportation of question papers to the examination centres in each district. A State-level monitoring cell at Pareeksha Bhavan, will co-ordinate the activities of the district-level centres. Technical expertise for the centres will be provided by IT@ School.

The Education Department had also set up 41 centralised valuation camps across the State. A total of 1,052 chief examiners and 10,514 assistant examiners will take part in the camp.