House panel allows states to tweak no detention policy

A parliamentary standing committee has supported the government's bill that seeks to enable states to tweak the "no detention policy" under the Right to Education (RTE) Act and hold annual examinations for students of Classes V and VIII to detain those underperforming in the same class.

The panel, however, suggested the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to not discontinue the existing system of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of elementary school students, accepting the views of various stakeholders.

It has advised the ministry to take "every conceivable step" to strengthen and implement the CCE.

It has asked the ministry to come up with "a common guideline" for all the states to ensure that the rights of children for free and compulsory education up to Class VIII remains protected after the passage of the bill.

The HRD ministry introduced the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha on August 11, 2017.

The bill was later referred to the parliamentary standing committee, under BJP Rajya Sabha member Satyanarayan Jatiya, on August 22 last year for examination and report.

"The learning of children must be assessed through examinations in classes V and VIII. The committee, accordingly, welcomes the proposed amendment in the clause 2(1) providing for regular examination in Class V and VIII at the end of every academic year and hopes that learning of children would improve considerably in future," the panel said in its report to Parliament recently.

The proposed amendments to the RTE ACT seeks to empower states to take a decision to hold back a child in Class V or Class VIII class or in both classes till the completion of the minimum standard of academic performance of the students concerned.

At present, section 16 of the RTE Act does not allow states/Union Territories to detain a child in any class up to Class VIII. It provides for automatic promotion up to Class VIII standard.