BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has opined that the ongoing ‘board examinations’/ summative assessments-2 for Classes 5, 8 and 9 cannot be termed board examinations just because the question papers have been prepared by the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB).
A division bench of Justices K Somashekar and Rajesh Rai K made the observation in an order dated March 22, while allowing the appeals filed by the state government against the quashing of the exams scheduled by KSEAB for Classes 5, 8, 9 and 11 by a single judge.
The court noted that when the examinations are held with the provisions of the no expulsion policy, in no manner they can be considered the board exam and they are in violation of the provisions of the RTE Act, 2009.
The court said it is not in concurrence with the arguments of the respondents (Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association and RTE Students and Parents Association) that conducting an examination would hamper the wellbeing of the children and also hamper their growth.
But it opined that the adoption of the assessment method would prepare and equip the students for the upcoming board examinations. The ongoing exams only appear to be assessments that are made under the provisions of Section 16 of the RTE Act and the state is empowered to appoint the KSEAB to manage them, it said.
The court said that as per Section 2 (a) (ii) (A) of the RTE Act, it is the state government which is the appropriate government that is mandated with the responsibility to carry out the objectives of the RTE Act. When this is read in conjunction with the provisions of Section 2 (7) of the KEA, the state government is empowered to appoint the competent authority (KSEAB) by way of notifications, to oversee the examinations, it added.
Differentiating the board examinations and assessments by KSEAB, it said that except the question papers are prepared by the KSEAB, no other provisions would show that the student is made to feel the exam as a board exam to put pressure on them.
Moreover, to consider an exam is board exam, the primary requirement would be that the result of the exam would be publicly displayed and the impact of which would be that the student who failed in the main exam and reexamination is made to sit in the same class which in itself is a serious consequence not only to the mind of the students, but also for their future.
Further, the valuation of the answer scripts of the board exams will be conducted by the external faculty, but in the present assessment examination, the evaluation will be conducted by the internal faculty, the court added.