Karnataka High Court quashes board examination for classes 5, 8, 9 and 11

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday quashed the notification of the school education department of conducting board exams for classes 5,8, 9 and 11 for the state board syllabus. The single judge bench headed by Justice Krishna Dixit upheld the arguments of the registered associations of private unaided schools who argued that conducting board examinations for these classes violates the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) model enshrined in the Right To Education Act (RTE) 2009.

The examinations were scheduled to commence from March 11.

Lokesh Talikatte, president of the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association said, “RTE mandates that continuous and comprehensive evaluation must be conducted at school level for classes 5,8 and 9 and it should not be a board exam. CCE means conducting examinations at the school level, evaluating them at the school level and assessing the students based on their learning abilities. However, when the question paper and evaluation happen at board level and taluk level respectively, it hampers the child’s learning curve.”

The private management associations also argued that conducting board examinations for students in classes 5, 8 and 9 will create anxiety and fear among students and will discourage students from going to school. The Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board had introduced a ‘centralised annual examination’ for classes 5 and 8 in the previous academic year, while the government introduced the same for class 9 and the first PUC through a notification in September 2023.

According to the notification, no student shall be detained in case he/she fails. In such a situation, the school has to inform only the student and the student’s parents about the results. However, for the first PUC examination, the board will be conducting a supplementary examination at the college level, if a student fails to get the passing mark.

Further, as per the guidelines laid down by the state government, the question papers for class 9 examination will be set by the Karnataka School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council and the evaluation is set to happen at the taluk level. Meanwhile, for the first PUC examination, the question paper will be set by the pre-university (PU) board and the evaluation will take place at the college level.

It can also be recalled that in the last academic year (2022-23) the school education department introduced annual examinations for classes 5 and 8, after which landed the government in troubled waters. Private school management associations had filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking to quash the government order that mandated exams for classes 5 and 8, citing that it would pressurise and cause tension among students.

However, in March 2022 the division bench consisting of Justice G Narendar and Justice Ashok Kinagi allowed the government to conduct board exams for class 5 and 8 students studying the state board syllabus. The court also directed the government to confidentially inform the student who has failed and to give the student the necessary training and remedial classes to improve the learning skills, without detaining him/her. The court also directed that the examination should contain questions within the syllabus and not outside the syllabus. Further, when the petitioners moved the Supreme Court on March 27, the apex court dismissed the petition and allowed the state to conduct the examination.