Parliament scraps ‘no detention policy’

Parliament scraps ‘no detention policy’

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which scraps the ‘no detention’ policy. ‘No detention’ policy is a policy under which students up to class 8 cannot be failed in exams and their promotion to the next class cannot be withheld up to class 8. The bill however, empower the states to decide whether they want to continue with or scrap the no detention policy. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill. Replying to the debate on the bill, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar said that Education ministers from 25 states are in favor of scrapping the ‘no-detention’ policy while four states said that they would keep the policy intact. "The Bill is leaving it to the states to either end the no detention policy or keep it," Mr Javadekar said, as he underlined that "driving out" children from schools is not the objective of the bill. "It says there should be an examination. Competition is not a killer. When children play, they also participate in a competition of sorts. So, they should take school examinations in the same spirit," he said. Mr. Javadekar said that the apprehension that school dropout rate will increase has no justified grounds. "There are no dropouts up to Class 8 as there is no examination. But there is 20 per cent dropout rate at Class 9 and another 20 per cent at Class 10. But 'you have not learnt what you have studied' is no education," he said. He also clarified that there will be no board exams at class 5 and class 8 levels but ordinary exams conducted by the respective schools.