Plus One: submission of application from May 16

schools under the Scheduled Tribe Development department will be held through the singlewindow admission system. A single application will be received online for these schools.

Seat increase

A marginal seat increase of 30% in all government schools in Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts and a 20% increase in aided schools in these districts will be allowed, Besides this, a 10% seat increase will be allowed to aided schools that raise this demand.

A 20% marginal seat increase will be allowed in government and aided higher secondary schools in Kollam, Ernakulam, and Thrissur districts, as also in Ambalappuzha and Cherthala taluks of Alappuzha district. There will be no marginal seat increase in

Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, and Idukki. Eighty-one batches, including 77 batches temporarily sanctioned in the 2022-23 academic year and four batches that were shifted and 97 batches that were temporarily sanctioned in 202324, will continue this year.

In all, 61,759 seats will be available through marginal seat increase and 11,965 seats through batch shifting, taking the total to 73,724 seats. There are 4,33,231 higher secondary seats available in the State, and 33,030 vocational higher secondary seats, taking the total number of Plus One seats to 4,66,261.

Besides these, 61,429 ITI seats and 9,990 polytechnic seats are also available for higher education.

Of the 2,944 students who sat for the Technical High School Leaving Certificate exams, 2,938 became eligible for higher studies, with 534 securing A+ in all subjects.

Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty on Wednesday announced reforms in assessment in the SSLC examinations.

The Minister said at a press conference that the government was considering bringing back minimum pass marks in the SSLC written examination from next year onwards.

Education conclave

An education conclave with experts from various ¤elds will be held to take a ¤nal decision on it.

At present, students have to score 30% marks in continuous evaluation and written examination together in each subject to qualify the SSLC examinations.

As students are largely awarded near-full marks in continuous evaluation, it is enough for them to score 10 marks in the written examination to get the minimum pass marks of 30 in a 100-mark test.

Like in HSE sector

Like in the higher secondary sector, scoring of minimum marks (30%) in the written examination in each subject is being considered.

For a 40-mark theory paper, a student should score 12 marks, while for a 80-mark theory paper, the minimum pass marks would be 24.

At present, it is enough to score 5 marks in the theory paper if a student has 10 marks in continuous evaluation to reach the score of 15 – the minimum 30% for a 50-marks paper.

The reform was aimed at improving the quality of students so that they could perform better at the national level, the Minister said.

Discussions would be held with education experts, teachers, and parents.