Reshma Ravishanker

The department of school education and literacy, Karnataka has asked schools to consider scores of previously conducted exams this academic year while promoting  classes V, VIII and IX students to the next grade.

It may be recollected that students appeared for the summative assessment (board exams), which was introduced this year and ridden with controversy. The Supreme Court on April 8 directed Karnataka not to publish results of the final exams for these grades after deeming them illegal. 

With the supreme court disallowing the publication of results of these exams, the school education department has resorted to considering the previous exam scores.

This means that schools must consider the performance of students in the four Formative Assessments (FA) and a Summative Assessment (SA) that were conducted this year to promote students to the next year.

In an official communication, commissioner of the department, B B Kaveri has said, “The new academic year 2024-25 is set to commence from 29 May. Since the results of the exams have been withheld, there is a lacuna about their admissions, paying fee for the new academic yearWe have received multiple requests, memorandums from parents’ organisations to resolve the issue. Hence, in the interest of students, the decision has been taken.”

As per the new decision, with the results of SA-2 being withheld, that of aggregate scores of students in FA-1, FA-2, FA-3, FA-4 and SA-1 would be considered. This means that the students’ score of 80% would be extrapolated to 100%.

H K Manjunatha, the Headmaster of a government school in the state said this would not make a significant impact on the results.

“Students performance in these exams would reflect what their SA-2 scores could look like. Barring a 5% margin, the marks of students would remain largely unaffected due to the new calculation,” he said.

Rupali (name changed), the principal of a private school in Bengaluru, however said, “This is a long-drawn process for teachers amidst the summer vacation. Some private schools have already made admissions into the school for the next academic year as there are just days for classes to commence. What happens if a student in class 8 or 9 fails now? Will they be detained?” In Karnataka, students above 14 can be detained in the same class if they fail to clear exams.

Also read: Karnataka: Mess & messier