In News:

Context:

• Parliament has passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2018, with the Rajya Sabha approving it on Thursday. 
• The Lok Sabha had already passed the bill seeking to further amend the Right to Education Act, 2009 to abolish the no-detention policy in schools. 

Highlights of the Bill:

• The Right to Education Act, 2009 prohibits detention of children till they complete elementary education i.e., class 8.
• The act amends this provision to state that a regular examination will be held in class 5 and class 8 at the end of every academic year. 
• If a child fails the exam, he will be given additional instruction, and take a re-examination. Such children will be provided two-month remedial teaching to perform better in another examination to be conducted by their schools.
• If he fails in the re-examination, the relevant central or state government may decide to allow schools to detain the child. 

Key Issues and Analysis:

• There are differing views on whether children should be detained for failing examinations in elementary school.

 

• Some argue that automatic promotion reduces incentive for children to learn and for teachers to teach.
• Others argue that detaining a child leads to drop outs and does not focus on the systemic factors that affect learning such as quality of teachers, schools, and assessment. 
• Provisions of the Bill regarding assessment and detention are at variance with what most states have demanded.
• It is unclear as to who will conduct the examination (which may lead to detention): centre, state, or the school.

Mains Question:

• What is no detention policy? Discuss the importance of the policy in the education sector?