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The Supreme Court rejected Karnataka High Court’s division bench order allowing the state government to conduct board exams for the summative assessment of students of Classes 5, 8, and 9 as per the schedule, beginning from March 11. It has put a temporary stay on the exams.

 

The apex court even warned the Karnataka government against spoiling the entire education system.

 

During the hearing, senior advocate Devadutt Kamat, for the Karnataka government, insisted, “this is not even an exam, it is a form of assessment, and in this way a policy will be maintained by the state to prepare students for their future.”

 

He, further, added: “Class 9 and 11 are not covered by the Right to Education (RTE) Act and Class 11 exams are already over”.

 

Kamat referred to Section 30 of RTE, owing to which no child shall be required to pass a board examination till completion of elementary education.

He said, “the objective of having board exams is not to detain.”

 

In an attempt to defend the state’s decision to hold these examinations, Kamat said, “We found that in the classrooms what is being imparted may not be up to the mark. So, we wanted to know whether schools operating in our jurisdiction are doing their job properly or not and the best way to figure this out is to have a uniform assessment.”

 

Kamat pressed that the examination is required and urged the court to not allow the appeals against the division bench order.

 

However, the single judge had quashed the state’s decision to hold board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 from the academic year 2023-24. The high court, on the other hand, declared that said decision was taken without following the due process of law as prescribed under the provisions of the Karnataka Education Act, 1983.