Sisodia wants 'no-detention policy' to be scrapped

 Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday proposed including children below 6 and above 14 in the RTE Act besides ending the 'no detention' policy.

Sisodia, who also holds the Education portfolio, attended the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education Ministers from all states were called by the Human Resource Development Ministry on Tuesday.

Sisodia's main recommendation was to scrap the 'No-Detention' policy which is blamed for the learning level deficits in schoolgoing children. According to the policy, no student can be failed up to class 8. The Delhi government and some experts have a number of times voiced their reservations against it and have also said that it leads to mass failures in class 9 as the students are under prepared.

“No-Detention Policy was implemented without any preparation. Textbooks were not changed, teachers were not trained and neither was any changes made in the BEd programmes before this policy was implemented,” he said.

He said given such a situation the policy should be done away with for now. The Delhi Vidhan Sabha has already passed a resolution for scrapping it which was sent to the Central government.

In a series of recommendations during his address, the minister said that the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 – according to which free and compulsory education will be provided to all children in the age group of 6 to 14 as a fundamental right – should cover more children, below the age of six and above the age of 14.

 Moreover, the minister also suggested changing the name of the Union HRD Ministry to Education Ministry as “human resource development is a part of Education”.

 "It is unfortunate that we don't have an Education Ministry in the country," he said.

Besides, he also asked the Union ministry to increase the Education budget, a nationwide "strict policy" on teachers not to be put on non academic duties such as filling family registers, voter-id cards, etc.

He also talked about setting up of a "world class" university for training of teachers and focus on pre-primary and early childhood learning.