Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, March 15: The Karnataka Education Department has issued a new directive for II PU (pre-university) students. Candidates who fail or wish to improve their results will now have only two years to appear for examinations for result enhancement. The regulation applies to regular, private, and repeat students and comes into effect from the current academic year.

Under the new rule, students can improve their marks only in the examinations held in the year of registration and the following academic year.

Candidates appearing for the three annual exams in a given year must complete any result improvement in the corresponding three annual exams of the next year. The department has made it clear that no further attempts will be allowed beyond this two-year window.

Since the 2024–25 academic year, SSLC and II PU students have been allowed to appear for three annual examinations. Previously, students who registered for the 2024 II PU exams in Papers 1, 2, and 3 —whether regular, private, or repeat—could improve their results in subsequent years, but there was no restriction on the number of attempts or the time frame.

Students who failed or wished to improve their results were allowed up to six attempts, without any limitation on years.

Students can still take up to six exams (three annual exams per year for two years), but these must be completed within the year of registration and the following year. Beyond this period, no further attempts will be permitted.

Explaining the rationale, Prakash Nittali, chairman of the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board, said managing past student records had created technical and administrative challenges.

“Each year, colleges were required to enter all students’ results for every subject into the system, which became cumbersome with large numbers of candidates. Printing and distributing mark sheets for passed and failed students added to the workload. If a student passed a result improvement exam, a new mark sheet had to be issued and the old one returned,” he explained.

Previously, even candidates aged 20–30 years were appearing for improvement exams. Considering curriculum changes and administrative complexities, the government has now capped result improvement opportunities at two years.