On 17^th June 2021, in the case of D. Suresh Kumar v. The Director, The Directorate of School Education and others, The Madras High Court observed that the education authorities need to be more sympathetic and understanding towards students, especially during this pandemic. The Bench remarked that, already there are huge number of cases where children are confronting with psychiatric counselling since the pandemic occurred. Also these children are facing new problems everyday, they are both physically and mentally dissipated as they are confined in their homes. 

The court also pointed out the fact that, the society should pay attention to this problem by simply being more kind and sensitive towards the children by not adding more pressure on them. This matter came up when a parent filed a petition that his son who was in class 10^th, was not declared “Pass” by the school authorities, only on the basis that the child didn’t satisfied the attendance criteria. The Government this year promoted all the 10^th class students, but petitioner’s son was not promoted by the school.

To this the court observed the fact that the children in schools are already facing numerous challenges, be it online classes which require watching screen for hours and stable internet connection. This has affected the mental health of the children adversely from past one year. The court noted that the government’s policy recently declared all the students of class 9^th, 10^th and 11^th, as it was impossible to conduct the final examination at large scale in the middle of pandemic.

Keeping in the view the mental state of children, the government’s policy and the current situation of the country, the court directed the school to declare the son of the petitioner as passed in the 10^th class final examination for the academic year 2020-2021.

– Animesh Raizada, Intern