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Context:
- The government’s proposal to amend the Right to Education Act and allow States to drop the no-detention policy at the primary and middle school levels will have far-reaching negative consequences for the education scenario.
- The proposal, which will give States the choice to detain children in classes 5 and 8, does not consider socio-economic factors and the state’s limitations in providing education, especially for the weaker sections.
The drawbacks of the proposal:
1.The government’s latest proposal goes against the spirit of the RTE, which is a fundamental right guaranteeing free and compulsory education till the age of 14.
2.According to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the dropout rate in elementary school was about 4% in 2014-2015.
- Detaining children on the basis of examinations will lead to an increase in the dropout rate.
- Parents may feel the child will be better off going to work as he/she can help bring additional income to the family and learn a skill for survival.
- Economically disadvantaged groups do not have access to private tuitions to train their children to perform better the following year in the same class.
- This will mean more youngsters out of school with no prospects of a productive future.
- In a society that considers the girl child a burden, and a country which has the second highest number of child marriages, parents will only find another reason to marry the girl off rather than send her to the same class for the second consecutive year.
Conclusion:
- The RTE should not be curtailed for any reason. Many children from weaker sections have benefited from this right.
- Taking away the guarantee the Act offers up to the middle school level is not in the goodwill of the children.
