The ongoing second PUC examinations saw record absenteeism on Monday with a total of 28,512 students skipping the Economics paper.
Freshers formed the largest group of absentees with 20,147 of them failing to turn up for the exam.
As many as 5,959 private candidates and 2,019 repeaters also did not take the exam, according to the Department of Pre-University Education.
A department official attributed the record absenteeism to the highest number of registrations for the Economics paper this year.
A total of 4,12,593 students had registered for the exam this year, as against the 3,87,975 students when the exams were last held.
In 2020, the number of absentees for the Economics paper was 20,230, the official explained.
Tumakuru district recorded the most absentees among freshers at 1,642, followed by Mysuru with 1,115, Chitradurga with 1,076 and Bengaluru South with 1,001 students staying away from the examination.
Six girls who refused to remove hijab, boycotted the examination in Yadgir.
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