Skill, don’t detain: 

Skill, don’t detain: 

Context:

• The Centre should reconsider its decision to scrap no-detention policy in primary schools.

Explanation:

• When the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act became law in 2010, it appeared to be a wall against the various ills that prevent continued schooling of all children up to the secondary level.
• The guarantee of uninterrupted schooling that the Act provides under sections 16 and 30(1) is founded on the no-detention policy until Class 8.
• This is a protection that should not be scraaped off with an intention to compensate for the overall failure to improve the school education system, beginning with the neglect of teacher education, bad recruitment policies, and confusion over what the goals of schooling are.
• The decision of the Union Cabinet to scrap the no-detention policy at the elementary level, and introduce detention of students who fail a designated test in Class 5 or 6, is fraught with the danger of going back to a regime of early dropouts.

Suggestions:

• Rather than detaining a child early through a stigmatising test, a progressive system would open avenues for skills training after the elementary level for those who would prefer that over academic studies.
• Such a model has served industrial nations such as Germany for decades, raising the standard of living for all, while ensuring economic productivity.
• The Right To Education Act has a provision for continuous and comprehensive evaluation, which governments needs to develop scientifically.
• Raising the quality of classroom teaching, continuous monitoring of teacher attendance and introduction of free vocational and industrial skills training for all those with such an aptitude after elementary schooling should be the priority.