Telangana, Andhra Pradesh neutral on no-fail policy

 

Top officials from the two states will take part in the Central Advisory Board of Education meeting, being attended by representatives of all states, on Wednesday at New Delhi. The CABE may partially scrap the no-detention policy.

 

AP school education principal secretary R.P. Sisodia said the government had not taken any stand. “It is a law enacted by Parliament. When it is in force we can’t say we are for or against it. I was part of the Union HRD ministry when the law was made and at that time, it was the view that detention was putting undue pressure on children.”

 

TS government officials echoed similar views. “We are implementing the law as it is. There is no detention in schools so we have not taken a stand for or against it,” a senior official of the TS education ministry said.

 

The no-detention policy is one of the five main issues to be discussed on Wednesday in the meeting chaired by Union HRD minister Smriti Irani.

 

A report of the CABE sub-committee on assessment of the no-detention policy and the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation is to be tabled at the meeting.

 

Most states are against the no-detention policy and have requested the Centre to scrap it, a stand shared by the Union HRD ministry.

 

The CABE committee had earlier recommended that the no-detention policy may be applied till Class V instead of Class VIII.

 

Other issues that will come up for discussion include the New Education Policy, extension of Right to Education Act to pre-school and beyond Class VIII and lightening the burden of school bags.