Karnataka HC cancels board exams for Classes 5 and 8 this year

Karnataka HC cancels board exams for Classes 5 and 8 this year

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Mar 11, 2023: The Karnataka High Court Friday upheld a petition filed by several school associations, striking down a government circular which would have set board exams for students of Classes 5 and 8 of the state board in March. The order was passed Friday by a single-judge bench consisting of Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur.

 

The petitioners, namely the Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association, Our Schools and Registered Unaided Schools Management Association of Karnataka, argued that the three circulars which were issued had prescribed a board examination for Classes 5 and 8 only for those affiliated to the state board and not for ICSE and CBSE students.

They also disagreed with the government argument that the RTE Act would not have any “appropriate government” for CBSE and ICSE schools with regard to examinations (in other words, the examinations as per the Right to Education would not be within the ambit of a large number of schools), pointing out that appropriate government was defined as the state government of the state the school was located in, as long as it is not a Central Government School.

The petitioners also argued that such a step had been attempted earlier, only to result in suicide due to stress among children. Counsel for petitioners also argued that to regulate private institutions, it should be regulated by “rule” under the Karnataka Education Act which is not the same as a circular, which was evading legislative scrutiny as per the Karnataka Education Act.

For their part, the government counsel had argued that there was no reason to oppose examinations and that the government had already expended crores of rupees. They had also questioned the reasoning behind the desire of private institutions to avoid public examinations. They had also argued that the exams would only amount to 20 marks weightage with the remainder supplied by the internal assessment.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that board exam for the 10th standard already exists and schools which did not prepare their students accordingly would be ignored by the public and argued that the resistance was to an ill-thought board examination and also pointed out that private unaided schools did not have the relevant study materials for the said examination.

The bench quashed the circulars, pointing out that such circulars could not replace a proper rule.