CBSE Class 12 evaluation scheme ‘fair’ and ‘reasonable’: SC

A bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari said, “We find no reason to interfere with the CBSE, CISCE schemes as there are other students supporting this. We find it fair and reasonable as it takes into account all sets of students and is in the larger public interest.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that the new Class XII evaluation schemes proposed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) are “fair”, “reasonable” and in the larger interest of students.

The court observed on Tuesday that any attempt to reverse the decision of the boards will create uncertainty in the minds of students. (Reuters)

A bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari, while dismissing three separate petitions on the matter, said, “We find no reason to interfere with the CBSE, CISCE schemes as there are other students supporting this. We find it fair and reasonable as it takes into account all sets of students and is in the larger public interest.”

The three pleas were filed by a parents’ body from Uttar Pradesh, one Anshul Gupta, and a set of candidates appearing for compartment/patrachar examinations conducted by CBSE. The first two asked the court to prevail upon the boards to revisit their decision to cancel the Class XII examinations as they said the proposed tabulation scheme is discriminatory and open to manipulation by schools.

Last week, the court cleared the tabulation formulae submitted by the two boards. CBSE proposed a 30:30:40 formula based on a student’s performance in classes X, XI, and XII, followed by rationalization based on the school’s past performance in board exams. CISCE based its formula largely on the performance of students in classes XI and XII.

The court observed on Tuesday that any attempt to reverse the decision of the boards will create uncertainty in the minds of students. “The situation is so dynamic that any uncertainty will affect the psyche of students and their ability to prepare for future exams,” the court said.

The petition filed by Anshul Gupta argued that if students could appear physically for professional exams such as NEET, CLAT, etc, they should be able to appear for Class XII exams too. “Can you take responsibility if they are exposed to the disease?” the bench asked Gupta, pointing out that nearly 14.5 lakh students will take the CBSE examination.

The Centre, represented by attorney general K K Venugopal, told the court that it is not safe to hold the examinations during the pandemic as it’s important to protect the lives of children.

The second petition filed by UP Parents’ Association argued that the boards could have provided the students the choice of taking the optional exams right in the beginning so that they didn’t have to wait until August-September as those are the months when college and university admissions happen.

The court was not in favour of giving students this choice. “Students will not be able to make an intelligent choice to appear for the examination if given a choice at the beginning,” the bench said, adding that while the students can estimate their scores based on how they performed in the past examinations, they could in no way know how their schools’ performance would reflect on their final scores.

The Centre also assured the court that the University Grants Commission has been directed to communicate to all higher educational institutions not to begin admissions until the final results are announced.

The court, however, noted variations in the schemes proposed by both boards. CISCE will not analyse a school’s performance in calculating a student’s marks. CISCE schools have already submitted the raw marks with the board while CBSE has left it to the results committee in each school to tabulate the results.

The court asked CBSE to put in place some mechanism to cross-check marks. The Centre assured the court that the system has in-built checks, and CBSE’s tabulation policy provides “best of both the worlds” to the students who can sit for improvement exams if they are not satisfied with their scores.

The third petition challenged CBSE’s plan to hold offline exams for compartment/patrachar candidates and asked for a tabulation scheme like the one for regular candidates.

“It is not possible for us to adopt a second-guess approach,” the bench said in its order, noting that in such matters, decisions have to be taken for 20 lakh students and cannot depend on individual perceptions of the petitioners.

It also asked the compartment candidates to take the offline exams between August 15 and September 15, as suggested by CBSE.

SC to Andhra: If there is one death, state will be held responsible

The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Andhra Pradesh government that its decision to hold Class XII board examinations was fraught with danger and the state will be held accountable should a single life be lost because of it.

Hearing a petition filed by a group of parents demanding the cancellation of state board exams, the apex court found that of the states that are yet to make up their minds on cancelling examinations, Andhra was the only one to actually want to hold the exams.

Advocate Mahfooz A Nazki, appearing for Andhra Pradesh, submitted that the state was confident about holding the exams and will take a call on it by the first week of July.

The bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari then said, “If there is even one fatality, we will make the state responsible.”

The court directed the state to file an affidavit by Wednesday and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday. That day the court will hear another petition filed by some parents challenging Kerala’s decision to hold Class XI examinations.