The state government on Friday submitted before the Kerala High Court that the decision to exclude students who have undergone CBSE school-based examination for admission to Plus-one for year 2013-14 was purely at the discretion of the government.
General Education Department Additional Secretary P M Thomas made the submission on a petition filed by the Muslim Service Society, Adimali unit, president P S Noushad and others seeking a directive that all students who have passed Class-X through either Board-based or school-based system be made eligible to apply for Plus-one in state schools. The state government has also sought to vacate the interim order passed by the court directing it to accept applications submitted by students who have passed the CBSE school-based examination for class X. The state said the allotment of seats had already been regulated.
Therefore, any change in the system of accepting the application and allotment of seats might jeopardise the entire system causing agony to the student community. There are more than 4.5 lakh students who have become eligible for higher studies after passing SSLC examination.
“If the application of CBSE students who have passed school-based examinations are accepted, it will affect the student who had passed state board of examination. The students who took school-based examination were in an advantageous position to get higher grades since the valuation is done by the school authorities themselves. Several complaints have also been received regarding the valuation,” the state said. It further stated that the condition barring CBSE students who had passed Class-X school-based examination from applying for senior secondary courses was in fact consistent with the policy decision of the CBSE itself. In fact, the Board had categorically stated that students who wished to move out of the CBSE stream should take the Board-level examination in Class-X.
The inclusion of this condition in the prospectus for the admission to higher secondary courses could not be termed invalid merely on the fact that during the previous year the state government had considered CBSE students who passed Class-X through school-based exams.
The school-based Xth Standard certificate could not be treated on par with the SSLC certificate when the CBSE itself had made it clear that the students moving out of the CBSE stream should take Board-level examination. The government said Board-based examination was conducted for students who wanted to move out of the CBSE after class-X.
The Board-based examination has authenticity as the Board sets the question papers, evaluation is centralised.