In a partial relief to the Class 10 students of an unaffiliated school in Kochi, who could not appear for some of the ongoing board exams, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday conditionally permitted the students to write the remaining three CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) board exams.
Twenty-eight students of Arooja Little Star School at Moolamkuzhi in Kochi could not write the Class X board exam as the school could not make arrangements with other schools that are affiliated to CBSE, as it had been doing for the past many years. However, the students were never informed about this and were shocked to know at the last minute that they will not be able to appear for the board exams.
The High Court, hearing a petition filed by the parents of the students, directed that the students can write now the remaining three examinations — Science, Maths and Social Science — which are to be held on March 4, 14 and 18, respectively. However, the High Court has stated that the exam results for the 28 students be published only after the final verdict comes in the case filed against the school authorities.
Though parents have expressed some apprehension over the condition, they are happy their wards can appear for the remaining exam.
“We are very thankful to the High Court for empathising with the students,” Philip Alfred, the father of one of the students told TNM. He also stated that the students are very happy and that all have rushed back to prepare for the coming three exams.
However, the parents have said that no details about the exam centres and seating arrangements have been communicated to them as yet.
“We are not sure about what can be done to write the past two exams which were held last week. We are also not sure where we should take the students to write the exam on March 4. No such details have been communicated so far, we expect to receive formal communication from CBSE within today,” said Philip.
Meanwhile, during the hearing in court on Tuesday, representatives from the CBSE stated that at the school was functioning without abiding to any norms that are needed to be eligible for affiliation. Reportedly, CBSE has also said that it will take action against those affiliated schools which illegally aided Aroojas Little Star school to make students write board exams in the past.
Arooja Little Star School has been conducting class 10 exams without affiliation from the past seven years. This was illegally done with the help of other schools affiliated to CBSE in the region. But this year, due to the failure of an arrangement made with a CBSE-affiliated school in Kochi, Arooja Little Star School management could not continue what they had been doing in the previous years to make students write class 10 exams.
Despite a section of parents knowing that the school did not have affiliation, they had not raised an issue about it before, since the school used to manage to make students write exams with the help of other schools.
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