Centre scraps ‘no-detention’ policy for Classes 5 and 8, allows schools to hold back students
The move will impact around 3,000 schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik schools.
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The Centre has done away with the “no-detention” policy for Classes 5 and 8 in schools governed by it, enabling them to fail students who do not clear the year-end examinations.
The move will impact around 3,000 schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik schools, which function under the Ministry of Defence, PTI reported.
Schools were earlier not allowed to hold back students up to Class 8 under Section 16 of the Right to Education Act, 2009. However, the Act was amended in 2019 allowing the “appropriate government” to decide on holding back students in Classes 5 and 8.
Following this, 18 States and Union territories had done away with the no-detention policy.
In a gazette notification on December 16, the Union Ministry of Education amended the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010, to insert a section on detaining students in Classes 5 and 8.
The amendment said that if a child in Class 5 or Class 8 did not fulfil the promotion criteria in the regular examination at the end of the academic year, they would be “given additional instruction and opportunity for re-examination within a period of two months” after the results were declared.
Students who still do not fulfil the promotion criteria after the re-examination can...
