MANGALURU
In view of the call to close down operation of businesses to express anguish over the High Court’s decision in the hijab case, many Muslim students did not turn up for the II PU preparatory and the odd semester internal degree examinations in Dakshina Kannada district.
“Our 18 schools and a degree college were closed on March 17,” said Haji Abdul Rasheed, president of Sayyid Madani Dargah in Ullal. “Our three PU colleges were open in the light of the II PU preparatory examinations that commenced on Thursday. Only a few students from our community appeared for the exams in two PU colleges, except in Hazrat Women PU College, where 27 of 30 students appeared for the examination,” he said.
The II PU commerce stream students had accountancy paper, while the science stream students had mathematics paper on Thursday. The II PU preparatory examination will go on till March 25.
Internal examinations for odd semesters of all degree courses also started on Thursday.
At Bharat PU College in Masthikatte, Ullal, which remained closed since February 25 due to row over hijab, only five of the 24 commerce students turned up for the examination. “We had told girl students that they can write exams by covering their head with a black veil, which is part of the uniform. Despite this, five Muslim girls failed to turn up. These five are among the 19 students who were absent on Thursday,” Principal P. Kalavathi told The Hindu .
There was poor turnout of students at the Government PU College in Mudipu. Of the 326 commerce and science students in the college, only 124 students turned up. Of these, 96 wrote the accountancy paper, while 28 wrote the mathematics paper.
“A majority of the absentees were Muslim boys. A few girls wrote the paper after complying with the college dress code,” said a member of the college staff. The college held classes for first PU students in the afternoon for which many students had turned up.
At the Government PU College for Girls on Car Street here, of the 14 PU students, five were absent for the preparatory examination.
At the Dayanand Pai Satish Pai Government First Grade College on Car Street in Mangaluru, only two Muslim girls turned up, while six remained absent for the degree examination held in the morning. In the examination held in the afternoon, only one Muslim girl and three Muslim boys turned up, while 15 other Muslim students remained absent.
None of seven post-graduate students, including five Muslim girls, turned up for physical classes on Thursday, Principal Rajashekar Hebbar said.
At the Government First Grade College in Kaup, Udupi district, of the 41 Muslim degree students, 18 were absent for the internal examination.
