The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to fix the examination centres within a distance of 10 kilometres (kms) from the accredited institutions to enable students to appear in the examination with certainty and ease.

A vacation bench of Justices S A Nazeer and P S Narasimha said that a substantial number of students resorting to open schooling invariably come from rural areas.

“Inability to travel long distances for each examination will only have the consequence of the student dropping out, which is the biggest challenge the country is facing today. It is interesting to note that the New Education Policy, 2020, in chapter six records the beneficial effect of reducing the burden of distance to prevent dropping out from schools through group walks, provision of cycles, among others for the socially and educationally disadvantaged groups,” the bench said.

“Most of these students come from poor strata of the society, depend on unreliable public transport and in all probability are employed for their livelihood. It is not difficult to imagine the consequences of inaccessible examination centres for such students. There is yet another factor. The primary, secondary, or senior secondary examinations invariably involve answering multiple papers spread over a period of time.

The apex court said a duty is cast upon the NIOS to fix examination centres in a manner to enable students to appear in the examination with certainty and ease. The bench said it is for NIOS to go an extra mile rather than expecting the students to walk long distances from villages and towns to take the examination.

“NIOS must have the freedom to identify, accept or reject an application offering to be an examination centre. While exercising that right, NIOS will also keep in mind its duty to provide accessibility of educational certification by enabling students to reach the examination centres,” the bench added.

The top court said that while fixing the examination centres, NIOS should be at liberty to take into account the credibility of the institution offering to be an examination centre and such other factors as are necessary to ensure integrity of the examination including law and order.

With inputs from PTI.

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