The government has revised the higher secondary examination (HSE) manual after 16 years.Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty on Friday released the modified examination manual that incorporates academic and technological changes related to higher secondary examinations and their conduct, especially the setting of question papers and valuation of answer sheets. The manual has been updated under the umbrella of a 15-member committee following talks with teachers’ organisations.Significant changes have been made in the manual regarding revaluation of answer scripts, the most important being double valuation of answer scripts submitted for revaluation. If the scores so obtained are less than 10% of the maximum marks, the average of the two scores will be considered. If the difference is 10% or above, then a third valuation will be conducted and the average of the score so obtained and of the nearest score obtained during the double valuation will be taken.If the score obtained during revaluation is even one more than that obtained by a student earlier, the increase will be considered. If it is less, the marks obtained earlier will be taken. Compartmental students can appear according to their choice for the Plus One or Plus Two examinations in the subject they did not pass. If they register for the Plus One examinations, the higher scores of Plus Two will be retained. If they register for the Plus Two examinations, the higher scores of Plus One will be retained. Till now, students had to appear for both Plus One and Plus Two examinations. In a major relief to students, it has been decided that a student who has appeared for the Plus Two theory examinations but is unable to appear for the practical examinations can appear for the practicals alone during the SAY (Save-a-Year) examinations.Application process for duplicate certificate has been simplified. Instead of an affidavit from a First Class Magistrate, a notary’s affidavit will be enough. After the examinations, scheme finalisation will be conducted and the question papers and answer keys will be published on the higher secondary portal. As institutions ask for certificates without grace marks during admission, students had to remit fee and apply again for such a certificate. To reduce the burden of work on departmental staff and reduce the financial burden on students, the certificates will have the grace marks in each subject separately.As many complaints regarding scores in subjects with practical examinations are received, it has been decided that a practical examination monitoring squad, including the teachers concerned, should be set up.Instead of selecting teachers from a panel given by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) for preparation of question papers, applications will be invited from teachers who are interested and a pool of teachers for each subject will be prepared. A panel selected from that will set the question papers.