No Detention Policy: Is the decision to fail children in 5th-8th class right or wrong? understand from expert

The Central Government has announced to remove the ‘No Detention Policy’ of not failing school students. Under this, if you fail in class 5 and class 8, you will not be promoted to the next class. With the end of ‘No Detention Policy’, a debate is again in front. Many education experts have accepted this as correct, but they also say that if attention is not paid to quality education, the situation will remain the same. No detention policy in schools was started in 2009, under which students are promoted even after failing in class 8. Provision was made to do so. The foundation for its abolition was laid in 2019 by amending the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Now after five years the amendment has been made.

No detention policy right or wrong?

Delhi government has already ended the ‘no detention policy’ for classes 5 and 8 in its schools from session 2023-24. Sukhbir Singh Yadav, President of Government Schools Principals and Vice Principals Association, says, ‘It was a good decision. Because till now many students who did not even know how to read and write properly were reaching class 9th. Students come to us in class 6 from MCD, many do not even know how to write their names. Therefore it was necessary to discontinue the policy. It is necessary to change the provision of promotion in other classes also, it will yield good results.

Bal Bharti School Principal LG Sehgal says that ending the no detention policy is a good decision. If this is kept in the mid session then its results will look much better. Actually, children are not able to perform well due to some problems and it is important to identify those shortcomings. This may not be recognized upon promotion and it is difficult to correct the shortcomings later. So this check system is necessary in class 5 and 8. Also, if Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) happens throughout the year, the results will be even better. This system is running in progressive schools.

More people failing in class 9

This year’s figures in Delhi government schools show that 17,308 students had failed in Class 9 for the second time. Statistics say that the failure rate in class 9 is very high, due to which the dropout rate is also high.

Education activist Ashok Aggarwal says that the policy was made after a lot of thinking, but neither the teachers nor the government could understand its philosophy. Now, there will be no benefit in ending it unless the government looks inside the classroom. It will be necessary to keep an eye on the issue of dropouts from small classes only.

Delhi government also believed from the beginning that it was a bad idea to bring no detention policy without bringing changes in the method of teaching, books, evaluation system and without good teachers training. In 2015, the then Education Minister Manish Sisodia had also written to the HRD Minister that it should be limited to Class 3 only.