BHUBANESWAR : Students of Class V and VIII will now have to appear annual exams for promotion to the next grade at the end of the academic year.
The School and Mass Education department on Wednesday informed that the state government has decided to implement significant changes to the Odisha Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2010 through the Odisha Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Rules, 2025.
Under this amendment, students of Class V and VIII will have to appear for annual examination and if they fail to secure marks to meet the promotion criteria, they will be provided two months of extra teaching by their teachers. The students will have to reappear for the examination and if they do not pass, they will not be promoted.
The new rule applies to both government and private schools and will be implemented from the 2025-26 academic session, commissioner-cum-secretary of the department Shalini Pandit said.
The amendment, however, makes it clear that no child shall be expelled from school until the completion of elementary education. With foundational learning being given top priority, the move aims at ensuring that the learning levels are reached before students are promoted. The amendment aligns with the National Education Policy-2020 which emphasises the need for continuous assessment and formative evaluation of students to improve learning outcomes.
These amendments are in line with Section 38 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and will come into effect upon their publication in the Odisha Gazette, the department informed.
Detaining students in a class based on their annual examination performance was stopped in the state after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was passed in 2009. Section 16 of the RTE Act stipulated that “no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or expelled from school till the completion of elementary education (Classes 1 to 8)”.
However, in December last year, the Ministry of Education did away with the ‘no detention’ policy for students of classes V and VII, allowing schools to fail students who are unable to clear class promotion examinations.
States like Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi have already implemented the change.
CHANGES
Students of Class V and VIII will appear for annual examination
If they fail to secure marks to meet the promotion criteria, they will be provided two months of extra teaching by their teachers
The students will have to reappear for the examination and if they do not meet the promotion criteria even after re-examination, they will be held back in the same class
During this period, class teacher will provide guidance to the child and his/her parents, focusing on addressing learning gaps identified through assessments