Education

KEY POINTS

No Detention Policy (NDP)

·         Given India’s abysmal record of the most number of out-of-school children, NDP was introduced.

·         It is an integral part of the Right to Education Act 2009, implemented in the year 2010.

·         As per this policy, students in schools are promoted automatically to higher classes every year till Class 8.

·         The Act mandates a process of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) to assess and evaluate the student’s learning instead of conventional examinations.

Issues in NDP

·         Automatically promoting all students to the next class leaves very little incentive for students to learn and teachers to teach well.

·         When students know that they won’t be detained for academic performance or low attendance, it builds very little motivation.

·         It ends up hurting the learning interest of the other students who want to study further.

·         Teachers lose interest as well and the overall quality of education imparted suffers.

·         Students without attending a single day of class can still be promoted.

Impacts of NDP

·         In rural India, only 47.8% of class V students can read a class II-level text and only 43% of class VIII students can do class V-level arithmetic.

·         This learning crisis is widening social gaps instead of narrowing them.

·         High number of failure counts and drop-out of students in class XI & X.

·         Access to education has improved but without the quality of education.

·         It further amplifies inequalities between and within nations.

Suggestions to make NDP Success

·         Unlike a summative assessment which is binary and turns up as pass or fail, the evaluation must allow credit points to be given for academic performance and school attendance.

·         These evaluations must focus on language (say, reading in mother tongue), numerical skills and one key vocational skill.

·         Students need to collect credits in at least two of these critical learning areas before being promoted to the next class.

·         This can help bring in some sense of seriousness in the class. Students now know that they won’t be automatically promoted.

·         Students getting to collect learning credit points will help integrate vocational education seamlessly into school education.

·         Students who drop out and are unable to complete education can use vocational skills to commence livelihood activities.

·        Apart from making reforms in NDP, enhancing Teachers quality, school administration and school infrastructures are also essential in order to make education a real wealth.