The central government in its new notification has allowed schools to fail students of classes 5 and 8. It repealed the no-detention policy in the Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009 amendment.
The central government has abolished the policy of not making prisoners for classes 5 and 8 in its schools. According to the policy, the center has ordered the schools to detain students who fail the final examination.
The Center in 2019 amended the Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009 to prevent schools from closing classes 5 and 8 students. However, after the new notification was issued, around 18 states and union territories removed the ‘no-detention policy’ for these categories.
According to the notice issued in the gazette, after conducting the regular examination, if any child fails to meet the promotion criteria as notified from time to time, further instructions and an opportunity to retake the examination will be given within two months. Date of declaration of result.
“If a re-examination child does not meet the criteria for re-promotion, he will be placed in fifth or eighth grade anyway.
“While catching the child, the class teacher will guide the child as well as the child’s parents if necessary, and provide specific inputs after identifying learning gaps at various stages of assessment,” the notification said.
However, the government has made it clear that no child will be expelled from school until they complete primary education.
“The examination and re-examination will be a competency-based examination to achieve overall development of the child and not based on memorization and procedural skills.
“The head of the school shall maintain a list of backward children and provide such children with provision for special input and monitor their progress individually with respect to identified learning gaps,” the notification said.
According to senior education ministry officials, the notification will apply to over 3,000 central government-run schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Vidyalayas.
“Since school education is a state subject, states can take their decision in this regard. Already 16 states and 2 UTs including Delhi have done away with the no-detention policy for these two classes.
“Haryana and Puducherry are yet to take a decision while the rest of the states and Union Territories have decided to continue with the policy,” a senior official said.
States and Union Territories that have scrapped the no-detention policy include Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Jammu and Kashmir.
When asked about the delay in notification since the amendment was approved in 2019, the official said that the new National Education Policy (NEP) will be announced within 6 months of the amendment.
“By the time the revision was made, the NEP was announced within a few months. The Department (School Education and Literacy) decided to wait until the recommendations of the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) were ready to be able to take a holistic approach.
“The NCF was prepared in 2023 and later the education ministry took a decision and made some changes in the RTE implementation rules,” added the official.
With input from PTI