Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education and Higher Secondary Education has not yet devised a formula to derive the Class 10th board Exam Result. Students who are eagerly waiting for the result for Class 10th for which the exam was cancelled last month are still deprived of any information. Recently, the Maharashtra Board Decision to Cancel 10th Board Exams 2021 was also challenged in Court.
On April 20, 2021, Varsha Gaikwad, Maharashtra Education Minister has announced the cancellation of class 10th Boards Exams in view of COVID-19. The announcement was made on Twitter stating that “the Maharashtra government has decided to cancel the state board exams for class 10th”. The Health and safety of the students were prioritised over the commencement of the boards examination. However, till now, the Board has not yet announced the evaluation criteria for the SSC Class 10th Boards Exam.
Dhananjay Kulkarni, a professor, has challenged the decision of the Maharashtra Board of cancelling the class 10th boards examination. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Kulkarni was presented to a division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and S P Tavade on Monday. His petition has also challenged a similar decision taken by CBSE and ICSE Boards. His advocate, Uday Warunjika, has argued that each Board will have its separate marking scheme and assessment criteria. This would cause certain difficulties to the students who will take admission in the 11th standard in the upcoming session.
In response to the argument, Advocate Kiran Gandhi, appearing for SSC, has said that the SSC Board has not yet devised any formula to prepare Class 10th Board results. The Board’s exam committee will come up with a formula and it will be then sent to the State Government for final approval. Advocate Sandesh Patil, appearing for the Union Government, has added that the Court has some control over the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) but not ICSE and SSC Board as it is an autonomous body. He has further said that the Union Government has issued a notification how the marks should be derived and the same structure can be adopted by ICSE and SSC Board.
The Bench has asked ICSE and Other respondents which include the Centre, ICSE board, and CBSE board to file their affidavits in response to the petition. Further hearing on this matter will now take place tomorrow that is on May 19, 2021.
