T.S.R. Subramanian panel on education policy states that the No Detention Policy till Class VIII has adversely affected academic performance of students

Last month, the Delhi government released a scathing full-page ad in newspapers, hitting out at the Centre for not giving assent to The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill that sought to remove the No Detention Policy (NDP) being implemented till Class VIII.

The Bill to scrap the NDP was introduced by Delhi’s Education Minister Manish Sisodia in November last year.

As per the NDP, no student can be held back in the same class or expelled from school until the end of Class VIII, the time when the student attains the age of 14.

The NDP was introduced in conjunction with the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2010. Section 30 (1) of the RTE Act states that “no child shall be required to pass any Board examination till completion of elementary education”.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Delhi government’s Bill was not given assent as it was sent without the prior consent of the Lieutenant-Governor.

Re-examining policy

On its part, the Centre is examining the provisions of the NDP to develop a suitable academic approach on the issue, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) informed in response to a Parliament question.

In fact, the draft National Education Policy itself asks for an amendment to the present provisions of the NDP as it has severely affected the academic performance of students. “The policy will be limited up to Class-V and the system of detention will be restored at the upper primary stage. Academically weak students will be identified, based on CCE conducted by schools, for providing remedial instructions,” the draft policy says.

Education falls under the concurrent list in the Constitution, which implies that both the Centre and the States can legislate on any aspect of education from the primary to the university level.

Along with the NDP, Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) was also put in place, which was supposed to be the assessment mechanism focussed on learning rather than just pass or fail.

The policy has been at the centre of debate right from the beginning.

Those in favour argue that the NDP has led to a decline in dropout rates in elementary school, keeping the child in the learning cycle for at least eight years, as envisioned by the RTE.

Empirically, it has been found that since the introduction of NDP, there has been a steady rise in enrolment at the elementary level across gender and social classes.

Further, a policy brief document from the Centre for Policy Research states: “Research evidence indicates that detention of students by a year or more does not improve learning”.

Even the Gita Bhukkal Committee [constituted by the MHRD] admits that there is no research that shows that repeating helps children perform better. But research does say that repeating has adverse academic and social effects on the child.”

But those who are against the policy worry that automatic promotion to the next class leaves no incentive for both the student and the teacher, which deteriorates the quality of education.

With no fear of detention, students start skipping school and don’t pay attention in the class.

‘Half failed Class IX’

According to the Delhi government, over 50 per cent of the students in government schools failed to clear the Class-IX examination last year — the first time they faced serious exams.

Further, promoting students who are not well equipped with concepts from previous class pushes down the standard of the whole class, making it difficult for the teacher to teach the curriculum at the expected pace.