Some assessment is necessary, feels high-level advisory board

The Central Advisory Board of Education — the highest decision-making body on education — on Wednesday decided to set up a committee to review the ‘no detention' provision under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The committee will submit its report in three months.

The Central Advisory Board of Education meeting also endorsed the government's initiative to create a Credit Guarantee Fund to provide better flow of credit to deserving students. The Rs. 5,000-crore corpus fund will stand guarantee in case any students default on repayment of education loans.

The ‘no detention' policy, for children up to Class VIII, is being implemented under Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), wherein students aren't detained in any class, irrespective of their academic performance.

However, there was no clarity regarding the methodology of implementation of the ‘no detention' provision, and the system to be adopted to assess the students. Many States, had in the past, and also at today's meeting, pointed out that promoting students to the next standard was adversely impacting their performance, and the results of the schools were falling drastically. Some even suggested reverting to the old system of annual examinations.

“While there was agreement that Board examinations aren't required, guidelines for implementation of CCE need to be evolved for examining the child during the elementary education cycle,” Union Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, told reporters after the 59th Central Advisory Board of Education meeting.

The committee will be chaired by Geeta Bhukkal, Haryana Education Minister, and will include representatives from academics and civil society, and will hold consultations with the State governments and stakeholders.

Mr. Sibal said some States raised the issue of ‘no detention' policy during the meeting, saying that it wasn't well understood, and said there needed to be some kind of assessment system to evaluate the students, even if they didn't want Board examinations. The States were informed that the RTE Act didn't allow detention of students and a structured examination, but there was no bar on some other forms of appraisal.

On Credit Guarantee Fund, Mr. Sibal said he believed that education loans should be available to students at a reasonable rate of interest. At present, education loans are given at an interest rate of 11.5 per cent to 13 per cent. Under the Fund, no collateral will be needed for loans upto Rs. 7.5 lakh, and the government will stand repay upto 75 per cent of the loan in case of default.