GO on counting Class 11 marks for college admissions challenged

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose which disposed a public interest litigation moved by an advocate S Parimalam, said, “The petitioner may make a representation to the above authority. The authority may consider and take a decision upon consultation with experts in the field including academicians, teachers and students.” 

The petitioner on referring to a Government order (GO) on May 22, 2017, making it mandatory to calculate Class 11 marks also for college admissions, said till date for admissions to colleges, marks obtained by students in Class 12 alone were considered for admissions. Now, bringing Class 11 into the picture is bound to wreak havoc on the education system. 

Advocate Raghavachari appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that owing to the present GO, a student of State Board must face three public examinations in a row starting from Class 10 if the above scheme is implemented. Stating that students will be stressed if they are compelled to attend three public exams year after year from Class 10, the counsel contented that the scheme suffers from a severe non-application of mind. 

He also noted that even in the CBSE, the Class 11 marks are not taken into consideration and that the State Board syllabus was not on a par with CBSE syllabus giving room to more confusion.