Govt to modify RTE Act for states to review No-Detention policy: Prakash Javadekar

It was agreed that learning outcomes should be codified and be made part of the rules of RTE.

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The central government may soon amend the Right to Education (RTE) Act allowing the states to review the No-Detention policy, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.

The minister said this after a meeting in New Delhi of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).

At the 64th CABE meeting, chaired by Javadekar, it was also agreed that learning outcomes should be codified and be made part of the rules of RTE

"The central government may bring in suitable amendment to the RTE act giving the states the freedom to review the No-Detention policy. We will approach the union cabinet with the suggestion which will decide on the matter later," Javadekar said.

"Many of the states said they wanted a review of the No-Detention policy, said they wanted to hold exams at the level of class five and class eight.

"So it was agreed that the decision to whether to apply the No-Detention policy or not, should rest with the states," said the minister adding that most of the states admitted that the No-Detention policy was "not yielding desired results".

CABE, the country's highest advisory body on education, also expressed concern over the deterioration of learning standards and called for steps to arrest the decline.

"Several surveys reveal that the learning outcome is not only poor, but getting poorer. The deteriorating learning outcome is a cause of concern and all the states agreed that steps should be taken to arrest it," he said.

"Learning outcome has not been defined in the RTE, so we have decided to codify learning outcome in the Act to spell out what should be the progress of a child in a particular class," said Javadekar.

He also said that the task of completing the training of over five lakh untrained teachers should be completed within the next five years.

A CABE sub-committee chaired by Telangana Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari will also be constituted to look into the issue of girl education.

Besides union ministers and 21 state education ministers, representatives of 28 states and union territories, heads of autonomous organisations, vice chancellors among others attended the CABE meeting.