The “No Detention Policy” in Indian schools has been doing rounds in vernacular newspapers; however, the Centre has officially removed the policy for students who fail in classes 5 and 8. This policy change enables schools to allow dropped out students who fail to meet promotion criteria to stay on.
According to the recent gazette notification those who fail the year end examinations shall be provided with instructions and allowed to sit for the examination again within two months of the results. In the instance where the student fails in the re-examination; they’ll be retained in the same class they are in. For these students, the class teachers will take responsibility of counselling both the students and their parents, plus making specific inputs on the areas of learning that have been found wanting in various assessments.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Education pointed out that no single child will be expelled from school without completing their elementary education. The policy will affect approximately 3,000 centrally administered government schools – Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools.
This move comes after the RTE regulation that was amended in 2019 enabled states to suspend the no detainment policy for certain classes. Till now, fifteen states and two union territories have declared the policy dispensing with it to classes 5 and 8 entirely. But Haryana is still making a decision and Puducherry has not taken a decision yet while all the others have decided to continue with the policy.
A particular emphasis was made by a senior official linking the decision to the improvement of the quality of educational services and guarantee of foundational learning. The notification has maintained some fairness by offering underperforming students more learning activities while ensuring they honor progress reports.
As a result, there has been debate on the possible effectiveness of improving students’ education productivity as well as the difficulties that schools are likely to come across when implementing the changed policy. Most parents, and especially educators, follow its progress in the educational system very closely.
