New Delhi: A government panel has recommended the creation of an education service cadre along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service and suggested partially doing away with the no-detention policy in school.

The education service cadre suggestion was made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March during a review of the working of the human resources development (HRD) ministry. The T.S.R. Subramanian committee has now incorporated the same and suggested as part of the recommendation for the new education policy, according to two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A new education policy is in the offing after a gap of almost three decades. The Indian Express on Saturday reported on a few of the recommendations. The HRD ministry on Friday had declined to make the report public saying “this is an input for the final policy it will frame".

The education service cadre, if implemented, will provide administrative resources to the sector. The education administrators are likely to be carved out from among academicians, said one of the two officials cited earlier.

On the no-detention policy, the panel has partially accepted the concerns of the states. The committee report suggests that students can fail from Class V onwards. It also suggests tracking students’ performance digitally.

Under the Right to Education Act, students can not be failed till Class VIII. But since the implementation of the Act in 2010, state governments have been complaining that the no-detention rule has affected educational outcomes and the performance of students.

The panel also suggests that educational institutions must be audited on quality parameters every three years. And instead of the government accreditation body, trained private auditors should do the job.

The panel has also favoured allowing foreign universities to operate in India, The Indian Express reported. Mint could not immediately verify this.

The policy has, as expected, suggested a revamp of education regulators and favoured less regulations and more monitoring of the education sector.

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