NEW DELHI: The government may do away with the decision to automatically promote school students till Class VIII — the no detention policy — but it first wants written consent from the State governments.
The broad consensus on revoking the no-detention policy emerged at the meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the top education advisory body, but the government seemed to be in no hurry to implement it, as it has asked the states to formally provide their views in writing to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). During the meeting, 19 education ministers, State representatives and CABE members unanimously agreed on revoking the policy.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday said her ministry would take a comprehensive view on it after receiving the states’ views. Irani also replied in the affirmative when asked if Class X board exams would be brought back if the no-detention policy is scrapped. “This is part of the whole approach. One can’t have a piecemeal approach. One has to have a holistic approach.”
During the day-long meeting, the newly constituted CABE deliberated on the report of the sub-committee on the no-detention policy. The CABE panel, headed by then Haryana education minister Geeta Bukkal in 2012, had recommended doing away with it as automatic promotion affected learning outcomes.
Irani said views were also expressed by Bihar education minister P K Shahi, who was part of the sub-committee, on how the policy was affecting students’ ability to learn and the concerns expressed by parents, teachers and students.
Citing best practices implemented in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, Irani said the ministry would send templates to other states to adopt these according to local needs.