No-Detention Policy: Current Status

On August 2, 2017, the Union Cabinet has approved scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class 8.

About No-detention Policy

Section 16 of the RTE act says that ‘No child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education’. No Detention policy was implemented in 2010 as a part of Continuous and comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the RTE Act to ensure all-round development of children in elementary classes (class-1 to 8). The students were automatically promoted to next class even if they don’t get passing marks in annual exams. The CCE is a western concept which focuses on evaluating a child through year and not just on basis of performance in one or two term exams.

Issues with the Policy

The intention of the policy were – to check drop outs of children, especially from the economically and weaker sections; create a fear {of failure} free environment; and save poor people repeated expenditures in same class in costly private education; and remove undue stress of competition among students, parents as well as schools. However, after few years, the policy seemed to have backfired due to following reasons:

• Defining minimum learning levels among children became challenge.
• Lackadaisical attitude of both students and teachers – they interpreted it as zero assessment
• No difference between good and bad students.
• Poor learning outcomes.

Committees and Various Issues

The Geeta Bhukkal Committee in 2012 concluded that this policy was causing problems and it should be implemented in phased manner rather and that it should be only till class V. The Bhukkal committee also recommended that the government should make minimum attendance of 80% compulsory. In 2015, the Vasudev Devnani Panel also recommended revoking the policy. It recommended for state level compulsory exams for classes V and VIII; and in these exams, the students who fail, are giving one more opportunity to pass in another month. And, once they fail in this exam also, then only need to repeat the same class. These recommendations were favored by most states. The Subramanian committee later also observed that the no detention policy in schools should be applicable till Class V and exams be held from Class VI onwards.

The basic objective behind this policy was to prevent drop-outs. The no detention policy in the RTE does not mean the abolition of assessment rather it calls for replacement of the traditional system of evaluation with continuous and comprehensive assessment that is non- threatening. The policy also intends to free the students from the pressure and fear of examination and give them a stress free academic environment and childhood.

However, somehow the policy has backfired on primary education system. The policy resulted in remarkable improvement in enrolments but then academic standard dropped down. No pass fail system means there is a negligence of children to study. Even parents started taking primary education for granted because they know that their wards would be promoted to next class irrespective of their performance in examination. Same is with teachers. Earlier, failure of students would put a question mark on teacher’s performance also; but now it does not make any difference, inviting a lax attitude in teachers too.

Arguments and Current Status

There are several arguments in favor of this policy. Those who favor say that:

• NDP and CCE are based in sound principles of pedagogy and international standards. This policy ended the exam-centric education culture and concept of equality among children.
• There is no research evidence that repeating a year would help children to do better. Instead, it would lead to more drop outs.

Current Status

The Union Cabinet has approved the policy to be revoked. The NDP can be revoked by amending the RTE Act. The Class X board examinations can be re-introduced through an executive order.