With the Union cabinet’s decision to dilute the No-Detention policy under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, the state governments which were against detaining students up to Class VIII, are free to continue this practice. According to an Indian Express report, the government sources clarified that the amendment to Section 16 of the Act as drafted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), now leaves the final decision to the state government to detain children up to class VIII, which earlier prohibited them from doing so.
Out of the 28 states who shared their views on the No-Detention policy, 23 states have suggested a modification to the policy. This decision was taken when the states urged the Centre to modify the policy, holding it responsible for poor learning outcomes and students and teachers becoming irresponsible. A source was quoted by Indian Express as saying, “Section 16 would have achieved its purpose if the teachers on the ground had evaluated students continuously. But that did not happen. With promotion up to Class VIII becoming mandatory, teachers became irresponsible and schools were reduced to serving mid-day meals.”
Also, as per the amended law, the state will be allowed to hold an annual examination in March for Class V and Class VIII and based on which they can hold back the non-performing child. It has also been mentioned that student cannot be failed unless he/she is given a second chance to pass another exam that will take place in the month of May. The student will also be provided with remedial coaching between the two examinations. Even though the amendment dilutes Section 16, it does not allow the schools to expel the student irrespective of how many times he/she fails in Class V and VIII.
The RTE Act came into effect in 2010 and the larger purpose of Section 16 of RTE Act was to ensure compulsory education up to the age of 14 and check dropout rate, especially in rural schools. Now the states are free to decide if they want to maintain status quo or detain children and if they decide to detain, they can only fail them in Class V and Class VIII.