Although some states have expressed concern over the controversial no-detention policy up to Class VIII, saying it has led to a sharp fall in academic exercise, Madhya Pradesh education minister Paras Chander Jain, in a meeting of state education ministers and secretaries on Saturday, argued that automatic class promotion has led to a situation where a student neither fails up to Class VIII and nor gets promoted after that.

At the meeting chaired by Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, Jain stated that automatic class promotion up to Class VIII under the policy has led to sharp fall in academic exercise and students are unable to cope up with examinations in the upper classes failing in the process.

The controversial policy came into effect with the enactment of the RTE Act facilitating the students to get promoted up to Class VIII regardless of their academic performance in the year.

Other states including Chhattisgarh, Assam, Nagaland, and Rajasthan are recognised having voiced similar concerns, as reforming the school examination system is one of the popular themes for consultations on the new education policy. Talking to the reporters, school education secretary Vrinda Sarup parried a question on the government's stand on the issue, saying the thematic groups are gathering views which may be complementary or different from that issue. "Essentially, everybody is talking about quality of education. It is a structured discussion, not to say this has to be reverted. Quality has wide dimensions", Sarup said.