Changing the examination pattern for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 is not something that can be decided by the State government alone, the High Court of Karnataka has said.
The government should discuss with all stakeholders, well in advance, before notifying change in the examination pattern in future academic years for the reason that the same can be effectively presented to the public in an efficacious way, the court has directed.
Equipping children
While declining to accept the contention of associations of certain unaided private schools that the changed pattern would hamper the well being and the growth of children, the court said: “The adoption of this method would prepare the students for board examinations in future and also that they will be well equipped to face the actual board exam.”
A Division Bench, comprising Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K., made these observations in its March 22 judgement of allowing the government’s appeal against the March 6 verdict of a single judge, who had quashed the government’s decision to hold exams through Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) for these classes.
However, on allowing the government to resume exams for these classes as per the changed exam pattern, the court said that parents, and children of Class 5, 8, 9, and 11 were aware in advance of the fact that students would be facing the examination in the changed pattern.
“In no way it can be said that the parents were unaware of the developments and the children were unprepared,” the court observed.
The changed exam pattern could not be termed as a board exam just because the question papers were being prepared by KSEAB, the court said.
Analysing the features of the pattern, which has been described as board exams by the associations of schools, the court said that merely because the question papers were prepared by KSEAB it could not be termed as a board exam as the changed pattern did not include key features of an actual board exam.
Key features, like detention of unsuccessful students, publicly displaying results, evaluation of answer scripts by external faculty, were not made applicable to the changed exam method, the court noted.
Even though the question papers were prepared by KSEAB in the changed pattern, no student was being detained in the same class in case of their poor performance and evaluation of answer papers would be done by the internal faculty, the court said.
“When the examinations are held with no expulsion policy, in no manner the same can be considered as the board exam and in violation of the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009,” the court observed.
