The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a two-bench interim order of Karnataka High Court’s putting the Karnataka government’s decision to conduct board exams for Classes 5, 8 and 9 for the state board syllabus on hold. The apex court has set aside the order and has referred the case to a division bench. As a result, the board exams have been postponed by the government, the school education department said. The court allowed the appeals filed by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association that challenged the interim order passed by the division bench of the High Court on March 7, staying a single bench judgment that quashed the government’s decision to hold board exams for classes 5, 8, 9 and 11. Meanwhile, the apex court noted that the board exam for class 11 is already over and those for classes 5, 8, 9 have already commenced (since March 11) and are to be concluded on March 18. The Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board had introduced a ‘centralized annual examination’ for classes 5 and 8 in the previous academic year, while the government introduced the same for class 9 and 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 is directed 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. However, the private schools association argued that RTE mandates that continuous and comprehensive evaluation must be conducted at the 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 happens at board level and taluk level respectively, it hampers the child’s learning curve,” Talikatte said.
