Supreme Court To Hear Plea Challenging Board Exams For Classes 5 & 8 In Karnataka On March 27

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear next Monday (March 27) a petition challenging the holding of board examination for students of Standards 5 and 8th in schools affiliated to the Karnataka state board.

The petition has been moved by the associations of unaided private schools against the order passed by a division bench of the Karnataka High Court on March 15 which allowed the holding of the board exams by staying an order of the single bench which quashed the State Government circulars prescribing the board exams for Class 5 and Class 8.

Advocate A.Velan(AOR) mentioned the petition before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for urgent listing. When CJI said that the petition will be heard on March 27, the lawyer sought for an earlier date, saying that the exams are commencing from March 27. However, CJI turned down this request.

"Let's not interfere with that...the High Courts know what is best in that State", CJI DY Chandrachud told the lawyer.

"We are representing nearly 4000 schools. The learned single judge by a very reasoned order quashed the government circulars", the lawyer replied.

"That's alright. We will hear you on merits on the 27th. Let there be no uncertainty. We will hear you on the 27th", CJI told the lawyer. Though the lawyer persuaded again, CJI stuck to his stand that the matter will be listed only on March 27th.

Before the High Court, the Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools, the Registered Unaided Private Schools’ Management Association Karnataka and Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association had questioned the Government circulars dated December 12, 2022, December 13, 2022 and January 4, 2023 contending that changing the assessment method by conducting State-level ‘board exams’ instead of school-level assessment will adversely impact the students and the teachers. Further it was contended that no discussions with the stakeholders, parents, children or schools had been undertaken before issuing the circulars.

However, the state government contended that there is no Board examination. There is only a minor change in the process of assessing children and 80 percent of the total 100 marks being given to students is based on the continuous internal assessment made by the respective schools from the beginning of the academic year. It is only for the remaining 20 per cent marks for the final assessment process that question papers are prepared at the state level and evaluation of the paper is done at taluk and block levels.

On March 10, a single judge bench of Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur quashed the Government circulars on the ground that they were issued in violation of the procedure under the Right of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The bench however granted liberty to the State to implement the decision from next academic year after following due procedure.

The single bench decision was stayed by a division bench on March 15, with a caveat that the results will be subject to the outcome of the matter.  Further,  the division bench of Justice G Narendar and Justice Ashok S Kinagi directed that state government shall ensure that no questions are framed from subjects which are outside the prescribed syllabus and the results shall be communicated to school and not put out in public and would be subject to final decision in the appeal.