Explained | Karnataka board exams row: Why students are the ultimate victims

While several organisations have opposed the examinations, stating that it will exert unnecessary pressure on young minds, the latest stay on the results has also brought along a state of uncertainty, indicating that students are the ones who are hit both ways.

SC stays exams, orders board to withhold results

In an order on April 8, the Supreme Court put a stay on the Karnataka High Court’s order allowing the conduct of board examinations for the said classes in schools affiliated with Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEB). As the exams for the 2023-24 academic session have already been held, the top court ordered schools to withhold the results too.

The top court passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Registered Unaided Private School Management Association (RUPSMA) and other organisations.

The petitioners had told the apex court that the state by being too keen on board examinations was paving the way for more student suicides as seen in March 2023.

“Karnataka, unfortunately, witnessed a few child suicides in the month of March, 2023. There was nothing that the helpless parents could do. The children were taking the board exams that the government had just introduced for children studying in classes 5 and 8,” the petitioners had said.

A bench of justices Bela Trivedi and Pankaj Mittal ruled that the state government’s decision to hold board exams for the said classes and the high court’s order supporting it were in violation of the terms in the Right to Education Act.

Court’s word of caution

The petitioners had also told the court that the Karnataka State Quality Assessment and Accreditation Council, following the high court’s order on March 22, had asked all state board-affiliated schools to publish the examination results on April 8.

It was also learnt that pre-empting the Supreme Court order (which came on April 8), the Department of School Education and Literacy on April 7 sent a circular to principals to announce the results by 9 am of April 8.

In its hearing on April 8, the apex court rebuked the department’s attempts to get the results published. It ordered KSEB-run schools to keep all results confidential and ensure that the findings are not disclosed until later if the students and parents have not received them already.

Students in a quandary

Even though the department and school administrations claim that the results have been declared in most schools before the court's verdict on August 8, sources say the Supreme Court ban came into effect before many schools could publish the results.

Consequently, some children received their results while others did not. The situation has led to anxiety and confusion among children and their parents. The top court also raised the issue in its April 8 ruling, hinting at the Karnataka government’s long battle in court to get the exam conducted.

“The state seems to be bent on playing with the future of the students and has caused a lot of physical and mental agony and hardship to students, parents and their teachers as also to school managements,” the top court ruled.

Despite the top court’s order, Ritesh Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary of the state Education Department, said the results have already been declared and further decisions on the matter would be made after discussing the court's order with the Advocate General.How state handled criticisms?

The state government in October 2022 decided to conduct board examinations for classes 5 and 8 under the National Education Policy to enhance children's learning quality and prepare them for Class 10 board examinations.

The decision, made by the then BJP government, was opposed by various organisations and academics, including RUPSMA and All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO). They warned that the exam would violate the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act and children’s rights.For the past two years, the state education department has been presenting its arguments in favour of the examinations. It says that even though the exams are called ‘board’ examinations, they are a “summative assessment” and in reality no child fails. The department argues that these tests are being held only to measure a child’s learning quality and teachers' teaching ability. It defends its stance that there will be no secret evaluation and code-based result announcement at the state level, as it happens in board examinations.

Chronology of events

In 2022, RUPSMA brought the matter to the notice of the court by challenging the Karnataka government’s decision. The organisation argued that conducting the examination would instil unnecessary fear in children and panic about the education system at a young age.

Activists have said that the government decision is a direct violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which states that children up to the age of 14 should have a stress-free, fear-free, and exam-free learning system.

As the case was being heard when the exams were being conducted, the high court in 2022 allowed the exams to be held only for that year, while suggesting the state education board to consult parents, school management boards, and education and legal experts before taking such decisions in the future.

It has been alleged that the state school education department disregarded the high court’s order to discuss the conduct of exams with relevant parties before announcing the timetable for the board exams for the year 2023-24. The department in two circulars issued on October 6 and 9, 2023, informed subordinate officers and school heads that the government had decided to conduct board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11.It was then that organisations like RUPSMA and ‘Our School’ filed separate writ petitions in the high court, questioning the government's actions.

High Court vs Supreme Court

On March 6, 2024, a single-judge bench headed by Ravi V Hosmani invalidated both the circulars of the government, ordering the cancelling of exams scheduled from March 11. However, by then, the examinations for Class 11 had concluded, so the order only applied to examinations of the remaining classes.

On March 7, 2024, the state government appealed to the Division Bench of the high court challenging the single-member bench's order. The Division Bench, comprising Somashekhar and Rajesh Rai K, overturned the single-judge bench's decision, allowing the scheduled examinations to proceed from March 11.On March 12, 2024, the Supreme Court heard the appeal filed by RUPSMA and Our School. A two-judge bench of Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mittal stayed the Division Bench's judgment. It also suggested disposing of the application in the same high court bench. As a result, the board examinations, which had started with two subject examinations on March 11, were again halted. The government subsequently issued an order cancelling the examinations.On March 18, 2024, the Division Bench of the high court heard arguments and on March 22, permitted the examinations to continue. Consequently, exams resumed from March 25 and concluded on March 28.On April 8, 2024, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court, hearing the appeal filed by RUPSA and Our School, issued a complete stay on the evaluation and result process of the public examination. It sternly ordered that the result cannot be published for any reason.

(This article was originally published in The Federal Karnataka)