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The introduction of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Rules, 2024 aims to help students who are struggling academically to be more focused and improve their overall results.
The notification will be applicable to over 3,000 centrally run schools including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools. (Image for representation: PTI)
For the first time, the Central government has allowed states to do away with the “no-detention policy”, allowing them to detain school students of classes V and VIII if they fail in the year-end examinations. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Rules, 2024, were introduced in a gazette notification on Monday.
It’s meant to help students who are struggling academically focus more and improve their overall results, but what does eliminating the no-detention policy mean for students?
let’s take a look:
What does the notification say?
According to the gazette notification, if students fail to meet the promotion criteria after conducting the regular examination, they will receive additional instructions and opportunity for re-examination in two months after the declaration of the result.
“If the child appearing for re-examination fails to satisfy the promotion criteria again, he/she will be stopped in Class V or Class VIII, as the case may be,” it said.
It states: “While restraining the child, if necessary the class teacher will guide the child as well as the child’s parents and provide special inputs after identifying learning gaps at various stages of assessment ”
However, the notification issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education (MoE) clarifies that no student will be expelled from school until he completes his elementary education. It further states that the examination and re-examination will be based on aptitude, so that holistic development can be achieved without reliance on memorization and procedural skills.
It says, “The head of the school should maintain a list of children who have fallen behind and personally monitor the provisions made for special inputs to such children and their progress in relation to the identified learning gaps. Will monitor.”
Who will it affect?
The notification will be applicable to over 3,000 schools run by the central government, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools.
Since education is a concurrent subject, states are free to decide on ending this policy or continuing it. A total of 16 states and two union territories, including NCT of Delhi; Daman and Diu; And Dadra and Nagar Haveli have already scrapped the no-detention policy for classes V and VIII.
The states that have canceled the policy include Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
States/UTs including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Ladakh and Lakshadweep to follow no-detention policy Continue to do. Class I to VIII.
According to ministry officials, Haryana and Puducherry have not yet decided.
The Right to Education Act, 2009 initially mandated that no student could be held back till class VIII, irrespective of his/her academic performance. This policy came into effect in April 2010, but in 2019, the Act was amended, allowing schools to detain students in classes V and VIII if they failed the year-end examination twice. Left up to individual states.
Asked about the delay in notification since the amendment was approved in 2019, officials said the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 was announced within six months of the amendment. Therefore, the Department decided to wait until the recommendations of the new National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) were in place to be able to take a holistic approach.
The NCF was released in 2023 and later, the Education Ministry decided to make changes in the implementation of the RTE Act.
What benefit will this give to the students?
Officials said the decision to scrap the non-education policy was taken after consulting and collecting feedback from stakeholders as well as academicians. He said the majority was in favor of bringing in a reform that would give students who are struggling academically a chance to improve and pass the examination, rather than promoting them directly to the next class without learning the basics of that particular stage.
Supporting the government’s decision, Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu School, said, “I was part of the Delhi government committee that decided to end the policy and allow students to be detained in these classes. This amendment is highly commendable. Custody should not be seen as a reflection of the child’s disability. Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity for formative assessment and feedback, empowering the child to achieve their full potential in line with their unique abilities.”
Delhi government ended the no-detention policy from 2023-24. Awadhesh Kumar Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya in Sector-8, Rohini, said the decision was much-awaited and commendable as classes V and VIII are the threshold to senior classes, and there are always some students who lag behind. Jha said that clearing them for the next level without helping them is not the right approach and hence, it is important to end a policy that does no real good.
“In Class V, on an average, there are about 5 to 10 per cent students who do not perform well enough and need guidance and more support. As they reach eighth grade, the percentage of such students increases to about 15 to 20 percent. We need to ensure that these students are well guided and can proceed to higher education, where they are at least prepared to face competitive examinations. This also brings seriousness in parents to make their children more aware of the need to do better. Jha said, this amendment will increase awareness.
