The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday overturned the school education department's notification to conduct board exams for classes 5, 8, 9, and 11 under the state board syllabus. The single-judge bench, led by Justice Krishna Dixit, upheld the registered associations of private unaided schools' arguments that conducting board examinations for these classes violates the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) model enshrined in the Right To Education Act (RTE) of 2009.

The examinations were scheduled to begin on March 11.

Lokesh Talikatte, president of the Registered Unaided Private Schools Association said, “RTE mandates that continuous and comprehensive evaluation must be conducted at school level for classes 5,8 and 9 and it should not be a board exam. CCE means conducting examinations at the school level, evaluating them at the school level and assessing the students based on their learning abilities. However, when the question paper and evaluation happen at board level and taluk level respectively, it hampers the child’s learning curve.”

The private management associations also argued that conducting board examinations for students in grades 5, 8, and 9 will cause anxiety and fear among students, discouraging them from attending school. The Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board implemented a 'centralised annual examination' for classes 5 and 8 in the previous academic year, while the government did the same for class 9 and the first PUC through a notification in September 2023.