No Detention Policy Ends: Students who fail in the 5th and 8th class exams will no longer be passed. The central government on Monday abolished the ‘no detention policy’. Earlier, under this rule, students who failed were promoted to the next class.
According to the new notification of the government, the students who fail will be given a chance to take the exam again within 2 months. If they fail again, they will not be promoted, but will have to study again in the same class in which they were studying. The government has also added a provision that such children up to class 8 will not be expelled from school.
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No-detention policy has already ended in 16 states
The new policy of the central government will affect more than 3 thousand schools including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools. 16 states and 2 union territories (Delhi and Puducherry) have already ended the no-detention policy. According to the Ministry of Education, school education is a state subject, so states can take their own decision in this regard.
6 Key Points of the New Policy:
- If a student in the 5th or 8th grade fails in the exam, they will be given a chance to reappear for the exam within 2 months of the results being declared.
- If the student fails again, they will be retained in the same class.
- Teachers will identify the weaknesses of such students, provide special support, and communicate with parents to improve their learning.
- Students who are promoted from the 5th and 8th grades without meeting required standards will be monitored through a structured program.
- Such students’ exams and re-exams will not solely depend on their ability to memorize.
- Students will not be expelled from school until they have completed basic education requirements.
Why did the government change the policy
In 2016, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) had suggested to the Human Resource Development Ministry to remove the ‘no detention policy’. CABE said that due to this policy, the learning level of students is falling.
Teachers did not have adequate resources to evaluate students under the no detention policy. In most cases, students were not even evaluated. Less than 10% of schools across the country had teachers and infrastructure as per the policy.
The policy mainly focused on increasing the enrollment of students in elementary education while the level of basic education continued to fall. This made students careless about studies because now they did not have the fear of failing.
Why was the no detention policy implemented
The no detention policy was a part of the Right to Education 2009. It was a government initiative to improve the education system in India. Its purpose was to provide a better environment for education to the children so that they keep coming to school. Failure can hurt the self-esteem of the students. Also, children feel ashamed due to failure, due to which they may lag behind in studies. Therefore, the no detention policy was introduced in which children up to class 8 are not failed.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha in 2018
In July 2018, a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Right to Education. It talked about ending the ‘no detention policy’ implemented in schools. According to this, regular examinations were demanded for students of 5th and 8th class. Along with this, there was also a talk of conducting re-examination within two months for the students who fail.
This bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2019. After this, the state governments had the right to remove or keep the ‘no detention policy’. That is, the state government could decide whether the students should be promoted or asked to repeat the class if they fail in 5th and 8th.
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