Yesterday, the High Court of Karnataka granted permission to the State Government to conduct board exams for the students of classes 5 and 8. Court also directed the government schools to give proper training and give extra time to improve learning skills and academics without detaining them. 

Further, Court mentioned that all the questions in the Examination should not be out from the syllabus. 

Earlier, Private schools of the state filed a petition seeking to quash the government orders to mandate the board exams, citing that it would pressurise and cause tension among students. The petitioners also argued that the government order was passed without mentioning it in the prospectus of the academic year.

Last week, the single bench of Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur upheld the petition and struck down the government circular that mandated board exams for Classes 5 and 8. Later, the state government filed a petition to refer a case to the division bench. 

“The idea of the examination is to assess the student’s learning level and is clearly not to retain the students. The examination will consist of questions based on the textbooks only. We will start giving wide publicity to students about the board examination from tomorrow (Thursday),” the Commissioner of the Department said.

On the other hand, Lokesh Talikatte, the Petitioner submitted “The judgment of the High Court, in this case, is unwise. It will put parents and students in an anxious state"

Further, he said ''The government has not provided textbooks to nearly 40 per cent of the students and the announcement was not made in the academic calendar of 2022-23.''

According to education officials, the move by the government is an effort to measure the progress and the performance of students at the elementary level of education for the entire year.