Madras High Court Upholds Tamil Nadu's All Pass Order For Classes 9, 10, and 11

On March 22, the Madras High Court upheld the Tamil Nadu government’s all pass order for students of Classes 9, 10, and 11 without conducting the final examinations.

The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had upheld the all pass order passed by the Education Department on February 25. They had also disposed of a public interest writ petition from an association of teachers. The petition stated that the decision had been taken without proper consultation, thus a stay order was sought. The court upheld the all pass order and dismissed the plea.

The schools can make students take aptitude tests before admitting them to their chosen stream in Class 11. The judges also directed the Education Department to issue necessary guidelines regarding aptitude tests and the admissions of students.

On October 2020, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami had announced in the state assembly that students will not have to take annual and board examinations. He had declared them “all pass” for the academic year of 2020-21 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Palaniswami made the statement under Rule 110 in the state assembly. He added that the pandemic situation, requests of the parents, and insights of the education experts were taken into consideration.