Board exams for classes 5,8,9 in Karnataka put on hold after Supreme Court order

The decision comes after the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association and other stakeholders moved SC to challenge the stay ordered by the Karnataka High Court on March 8.

The Supreme Court set aside a Karnataka High Court order, putting board exams for classes 5, 8, and 9 on hold.

The state government has now postponed the exam since the top court has referred the case to a division bench.

The decision comes after the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association and other stakeholders moved SC to challenge the stay ordered by the Karnataka High Court on March 8.

On March 6, the Karnataka High Court nullified the decision to conduct board exams for classes 5,8 and 9 after the Karnataka government’s school education department issued a notification for the same. A single bench headed by Justice Krishna Dixit has ruled against the state government and sided with arguments presented by the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association contending that such exams would contradict the Right to Education Act's (RTE) emphasis on continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) for these grades.

Later, a division bench on March 8 stayed the order, paving the way for exams to be held on March 11.

However, since exams for class 11 have already been conducted, SC’s ruling applies to classes 5, 8 and 9.

Last year in March, the High Court quashed circulars issued by the Education Department introducing board-level assessment for classes 5 and 8. This applied to students studying in the state syllabus and the question papers were set to be designed by the Karnataka School Examinations and Assessment Board, as per PTI.

The Organisation challenged the Education Department's notices for Unaided Recognised Schools and the Registered Unaided Private Schools’ Management Association. However, a division bench later allowed the exam with certain changes. The Karnataka state government introduced the same for class 9 through a notification in September 2023.