The Madras High Court on Monday refused to quash a Government Order issued on February 5 for promoting State Board students of Classes IX, X and XI without conducting written annual examinations due to the threat of COVID-19. The court said just because the order had referred to a speech made by the Chief Minister, it cannot be construed that the executive decision was taken without any discussion or deliberation.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, however, pointed out that the G.O. does not preclude individual schools from devising their own methods, such as conduct of online test, to assess the aptitude of Class X students who had to be accommodated in different streams while admitting them in Class XI. They said the School Education \Department could issue necessary guidelines on assessing those students.
The orders were passed while disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by an association of private schools. Senior counsel S. Silambanan, representing the petitioner association, said the decision to cancel the annual examinations for the school students do not appear to have been taken after due deliberations and it appeared to be a decision taken following an off the cuff remark made by the Chief Minister.
He wondered why State Board students alone should be exempted from writing examinations when students studying in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) schools had to take up the exams to graduate to the next class. The senior counsel also pointed out that Class X marks were crucial to assess whether a student would fit into science or commerce stream in Class XI.
