Activists deplore no-detention rule
They say move will increase school dropout
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class 8. However, this move received negative response from child rights activists and educationists as this will allow states to detain students in Class 5 and class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam.
Child rights activists oppose the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class 8 as this will increase the school dropout numbers and child labour. However, the city schools say it is a great news to them because automatic promotion brings in a laidback attitude in the students.
Mr Achyuta Rao, a child rights activist, said “We are strongly opposing the move of the Central government on the detention system. We condemn the idea of detention itself. If children are detained, they will become dropouts, and in turn, child labourers or child brides, as detention happens mostly in government schools. Private schools will extract more money from the parents to promote the wards and it will be a new source of income.”
He adds “Even if this was left to the states, where 21 states are BJP ruled, they will definitely implement this detention system as it was proposed by their own government. The literacy rate will come down drastically and child labour and child marriages will increase. We appeal to the President of India not to sign on this anti-children bill.”
Mr N. Narayana, an education expert, said “The detention policy will deny education to the oppressed classes and defeat the spirit of RTE. As per the DISE data, 2017-18, there were around 2.5 crore students in class 5 and 2.20 crore in class 8. With no detention policy, 98 per cent of them will be promoted to the next class. But the detention policy will fail half of them due to shortage of teachers, lack of facilities and mismanagement of government schools etc. A live example is Telangana. There has been no teaching in 5,000 schools for the last 50 days. The real culprits are the successive governments, but the law makers are ready to punish innocent students. It is a retrograde act in Indian school education.”
Mr Narsimha Reddy, principal, Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur, said “Automatic promotion promotes a laid-back attitude in students and thereby, learning outcomes will come down. Many students are detained in class 9 as the policy allows schools to do so, which results in serious emotional disturbances in teenagers. If detentions are done at early stages like in classes 5 and 8, it will certainly reduce failures in higher classes. Teachers also will become more accountable.”