Thiruvananthapuram, March 15 (IANS) Over 1.3 million students of Classes 10, 11 and 12 in Kerala are appearing for the state public examinations beginning Monday, officials said.

All arrangements are in place for the smooth conduct of the exams for Class 10 and the Higher Secondary and Vocational Higher Secondary courses for Class 11 and 12, said Director of Public Examination A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish.

While the Class 10 examination is slated for the afternoon, the other two would be held in the forenoon.

More than 4.5 lakh students are to appear for the Class 10 exam, 3.84 lakh in Class 11 and 4.15 lakh in the Class 12 Higher Secondary exams. Close to 50,000 would answer the Class 11 and 12 Vocational Higher Secondary course papers, officials said.