LS clears detention policy

LS clears detention policy

News:

1. A Bill to amend the Right to Education (RTE) Act to abolish the ‘no detention policy’ in schools was passed in the Lok Sabha.

Important facts:

2. The demand for repeal of ‘no detention’ policy was made by many States and UTs in recent years which observed students scoring poor marks.

3. Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar moved the ‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017’, which sought for regular examination in Classes V and VIII.

4. The Minister said that it would be at the discretion of the States whether to continue with no detention or not.

5. Present act deals with the following provisions:

6. Under the current provisions of the RTE Act, no student can be detained till class 8 and all students are promoted to the next grade.

7. Amended Act:

• The amended Act will now have provisions not only for examination in both these classes.
• It will also extend powers to the State to hold back children, if they fail in re-examination — also provisioned in the amended Bill.

8. Arguments in favour of amended Bill:

• The amendment was necessary to improve the “learning outcomes”
• It will brings accountability in elementary education system.
• The amendment will help in revocation of “no detention “ policy in Classes V and VIII, enabling States now to allow schools to fail the child if he/she fails in either or both Classes and withhold their promotion to next standard.
• In States such as Sikkim, Kerala, and Telangana, the students, who were studying in private schools, had come back to government schools.

9. Arguments against amendment:

• Some opposition parties critised this move and saying the State governments should be given control on this.

10. Suggestion:

• The government should form uniform guidelines for conduction exams and leave it to the State on how the exams should be conducted.
• Teachers training, quality and accountability is most important in this regard.