Bengaluru, In the second Karnataka Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) board exam, 98 per cent of the 8.5 lakh students appeared for Mathematics across the southern state, said Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar on Saturday.

"The heavy turnout for the maths paper shows the confidence of students and their parents on preparations by the state government in conducting the board exams safely," Kumar told reporters.

The first board exam in English as a second language was held on June 25 in which 98 per cent of the wards wrote across the state, as per the guidelines.

"My appeal to students and parents is not to congregate near the exam centres before and after the exam and comply with the social distancing norm besides wearing mask and sanitizing their hands. The safety of the students is as much of parents as the government," asserted Kumar.

A student in an exam centre at Arakalgud in Hassan district, about 200 km northwest of Bengaluru, however, tested positive for the virus, an official said.

"The student took treatment for dengue before the exams began on June 25 and gave his sample for Covid-19 test, which turned positive. The report came while he was writing the maths exam at the Arakalgud centre," SSLC board director V. Sumangala told IANS.

The board has arranged separate seating at all exam centres for students who tested positive, had cold, cough and other symptoms and those from containment zones.

"The health officials are taking steps to trace the student's contacts and quarantine them. All exam centres are sanitized and fumigated," she said.

A whopping 86,000 people, including 63,000 state-run school teachers and 23,000 from other departments like health, police and social welfare are on duty for the smooth conduct of the exams till July 4.

The next exam in Science subject is on Monday.

The exams were earlier scheduled from March 27 to April 9, but were put off as the lockdown was extended thrice up to May 31.

As a 2-metre distance has to be kept between two students, more exam centres have been arranged to comply with the guidelines.

Each exam centre has also been equipped with sanitizer dispensers to wash hands before and after the exam.