Himachal HC allows 8-year-old child prodigy to be elevated to Class 8

Shimla, March 23: The Himachal Pradesh High Court, as a special case, has allowed an eight-year child prodigy, to be elevated from standard 3 of Rainbow Public Senior Secondary School Dharamman, Palampur, to be provisionally admitted as a day scholar in Class 8 in the same school. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed this order on a Civil Writ Petition filed by Kashvi (minor), through her father Santosh Kumar of Palampur District in Kangra. Kashvi was born on March 12, 2014 and is presently studying in class 3. In the writ petition filed through her father, it has been claimed that Kashvi is an extraordinary, exceptional and intellectually superior child. She is blessed with the skills of grasping things quickly. It has been claimed in the petition that at the age of three, the petitioner learnt about the capital of Indian States/UTs and neighborhood countries and to this effect, her first video was uploaded on YouTube by her father. In 2019, the petitioner had knowledge of Solar System, National Flag, important days, districts of HP, and largest and longest districts of India. Further in 2020,  the

petitioner was having knowledge about National Parks of India, 50 most important irregular forms of verbs, regular and irregular forms of verbs, India and world organizations, rivers and world GK, new people, classical dances and ITO GK series for class 5, 6, 7. The videos are available on internet and being viewed and liked by numerous people. Kashvi’s parents are said to be teachers in the state. The Education Department Her father earlier also filed a writ petition on her behalf in 2021, seeking direction to permit Kashvi to appear in SOSs class 8 examination as a special case, after relaxing the age criteria. The Principal of the school, where Kashvi was admitted in standard III, appeared before the Court and acknowledged the fact that Kashvi was an exceptional child, as compared to other children of her age. He, however, expressed concern that permitting her to appear in the class 8 examination would amount to putting her to tremendous pressure and that as an educationist, he would not favour the prayer made by her parents on behalf of their minor child. The Division Bench of the High Court, agreeing with the principal that exposing a child of this tender age of seven years to examination of class 8 would be keeping the child under undue pressure. However, in case in future, if the child does show some exceptional traits, then she is at liberty to approach this Court as well as the authorities, but at that point of time, the prayer of the petitioner would not be acceded to. In an endeavor to see that Kashvi appears in class 8 examination, her parents subjected her to an 1Q test on October 16, 2021 at the Zonal Hospital Dharamshala. Her 1Q was assessed as 154 and doctor examining her opined that she was extraordinarily, intellectually very superior/Genius child. Armed with the 1Q test result of Kashvi, her father sent letters to different functionaries in the State Department of Education, Himachal Pradesh, with request to enroll her in class 8/permit her to appear in class 8 examination. When nothing was done in the matter at the end of the respondents, he filed an instant petition on her behalf, seeking direction to the respondents to allow Kashvi to take admission in class 8 as a special case or in the alternative to direct the respondents to permit her to appear in class 8 examination as a special case. The State Board of School Education, in its reply, stated that admission to all classes up to 8th are regulated as per the rules laid down by the State Education Department. On the direction of this High Court dated 02.03.2022, a Medical Board consisting of three experts from the Specialty, constituted by the Principal of L.G.M.C & Hospital, Shimla conducted Kashvi’s 1Q level test on 04.03.2022 and assed her average IQ as 128. The Court observed that they are deeply conscious of the situation that a child of such tender age, as Kashvi is, might face a lot of peer pressure, emotional and physical stress in future in case she is permitted to undertake class 8 examination at this stage. There would be many such eventualities which Kashvi may face in future on account of her accelerated jumps at a tender age of 8 years which she and her parents might not even visualize today. However, court further observed that they are also aware of the fact that Kashvi may be a genius and intellectually superior child as is claimed in the petition. Taking stock of every material aspect, the Court doesn’t deem it appropriate to permit Kashvi to straightaway undertake final examination of class 8. However, to balance the scales and to see her overall progress, the Court directed the respondents to provisionally admit Kashvi as a day scholar in class 8 in the Rainbow Public Senior Secondary School Dharamman Palampur, affiliated to the H. P. Board of School Education Dharamshala, District Kangra, H.P. The Court further ordered that in case Kashvi takes provisional admission as a day scholar in class 8 in the said school, then her overall progress shall be monitored on regular basis by the concerned school authorities. She has been allowed to provisionally appear in all the class tests, term examinations and all related school activities etc. The Secretary H.P. Board of School Education and Rainbow Public Senior Secondary School Dharamman, Palampur, have been directed to file their reports regarding over all progress of Kashvi in every field, be it sports, extracurricular activities, academic as well as her emotional, physical and mental well-being, before the next date and further order in the matter shall be passed after seeing the overall progress of the child. The matter was posted for March 28. (UNI)