RECOGNISING THE negative impact of the no-detention policy on academic performance of students over the years, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), in its draft for the New Education Policy (NEP), which was uploaded on its website on Wednesday, has recommended that the no-detention policy be limited till Class V only. The recommendation has also found favour with teachers and academia of the region, who had sent similar recommendations against the no-detention to the MHRD.

“The no-detention policy till Class VIII did more harm than good, it was a policy that backfired. As a result of this, there are now several students who are easily promoted till Class IX, but cannot even properly write their names. It is a good thing that MHRD has realised the negative impact this policy had on the quality of education,” said Vinod Kumar, a teacher at a city government school. In her recommendation for the New Education Policy, local MP Kirron Kher had also insisted upon not extending the no-detention policy for high school students.

The UT Education Department, in its list of suggestions for NEP, had, however, insisted that the no-detention policy be eliminated altogether as it fails to academically benefit the students.

Said Swarn Singh Kamboj, president of UT Cadre Educational Employees Union, “The main aim of education should be to make sure that students have their basics clear right from the beginning. Why promote children even till Class V, if they do not have their basics clear? Promotion of students to any class should solely be done on the basis of their academic performance.”

Kamboj added, “Earlier, the education system was such that there were board exams for classes V, VIII and X. If such a system worked out, then why can’t it be implemented now? There should be no leniency in this regard.”

Also recognising the high failure rate in Class X board examinations, the draft policy suggests that Class X examinations in Mathematics, Science and English be conducted at two levels: Part-A at a higher level and Part-B at a lower level, as suggested by the T S R Subramanian Committee report. Students who intend to join courses for which Science, Mathematics or English is not a pre-requisite, or wish to join a vocational stream after Class X will be able to opt for Part-B level examination.

“This seems like a well-thought out recommendation in order to bring down the failure rate in Class X. Students who are not interested in these three subjects that have the highest failure rates should definitely get the option of appearing for an examination with lesser difficulty levels. But this recommendation could also bring in a sense of disparity amongst the students, and in order to get higher scores, students might just always want to opt for the easier level,” said Rituparna Sanyal, a teacher at a city private school.

Interestingly, the National Assessment Survey (NAS) for Class X conducted by NCERT had recently pointed out that students of government schools in Chandigarh had performed below average in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. In the Class X board exams this year, only 83 students from city government schools had managed to score a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 10. After the board results, the UT Education Department had also formed a special committee to look into the steps needed for improvement of classes X and XII results in the city.

Amongst the other suggestions that had been sent by the UT Education Department and Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR) were: provision of counsellors in all schools, stress on mother tongue, improvement in CCE patterns with focus on better implementation, greater emphasis on holistic development and introduction of subjects on human rights. Taking note of these recommendations, for educating students on adolescent education and protection of their child rights, draft for the NEP suggests that an Adolescent Education Programme and National Population Education Programme be integrated into the school curriculum.

The draft policy also states that up to Class V, education can be provided in the mother tongue or regional languages in states and UTs. It has, however, been added that English must continue to be the second language, if the medium of instruction is changed to any regional language or mother tongue.

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