Kendriya Vidyalayas to Supreme Court: CBSE ready to relax criteria for boards

The affidavit disclosed that KVs had written to the CBSE on October 8, requesting the latter to relax the condition as a one-time measure to enable them to appear in the Class X Board exam.

Responding, the CBSE on December 10 agreed to do so “in the interest of the students and in view of the emergency explained”. It made it clear that all the students, irrespective of whether or not they complete three years of studying Sanskrit after its introduction, would be eligible to appear for the Class X Board exam.

The KVS, citing this clarification from the CBSE, has now urged the court to dispose a PIL by some parents of KV students who had questioned the “haste” in which the government proceeded to replace German with Sanskrit in mid-session.

According to the CBSE curriculum, a student requires to clear the third language, after studying it for three years, as an eligibility to appear for Class X Board exam.

Students in KVs, which follows the CBSE medium, would not be able to meet this condition if they start learning Sanskrit in Class VII or VIII. The same predicament would occur if there is no examination for Class VI students in the current academic session, as assured by the Centre.

After the parents highlighted this dichotomy, the court had last week asked the Centre how it planned to over come this quandary. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had said he would resolve it after deliberation with officials from HRD Ministry, KVS and CBSE. The court will take up the response on Tuesday.