The Maharashtra government on Monday told the Bombay High Court that Secondary School Certificate (SSC-Class X) exams cannot be compared with Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC-Class XII) exams as HSC exams were “relatively more important milestones” for students.
The state government justified its decisions of cancelling Class X exams — for which it has issued an assessment formula — and postponement of Class XII exams, arguing that the consequences of taking these two exams are different as students appearing for Class XII are more mature, independent, socially aware, bodily and mentally fit.
A vacation bench of Justice S J Kathawalla and Justice S P Tavade on May 20 had rapped the state government and asked it to file an affidavit stating why it had decided to keep Class XII board exams in abeyance and cancelled Class X board exams.
The HC had also asked the state government whether Class X students would be “uniformly” evaluated in case of cancellation of exams and sought to know the assessment formula for the same.
On May 28, the state government announced that students will be evaluated through an internal assessment formula for the academic year 2020-21. The state said that admissions to Class XI will be conducted physically through optional Common Entrance Test (CET) based on Class X syllabus and those unwilling to appear for CET will be admitted on the basis of Class X marks.
On Monday, the state government submitted an affidavit through Rajendra Pawar, Deputy Secretary, state School Education Department, in response to a PIL by Pune resident and retired professor Dhananjay Kulkarni filed through advocate Uday Warunjikar against cancellation of Class X board exams.
Surjitt Sahani
