Failed students to lose a year: HRD ministry

Bengaluru: The education system across the country will see a major change from the next academic year with the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) deciding to do away with the non-retention policy.

With this, students have to face external examinations in Classes 5 and 8. It will be left to the state governments to decide if the Class V exam will be at the school, block, district or state level.

If a child fails, he or she will be given an opportunity to improve and made to sit for another exam. If the child fails to pass the exam even in the second attempt, only then the child will be retained in the same class, sources in MHRD said.

As per the ministry’s decision, students will face school-level exams in Classes 6 and 7. Again in Class 8, there will be an external exam. In Class 8 too, a failed child will be given a second chance, the sources said.

An officer from the state education department said that the decision is expected to improve the learning levels of students.  

Activists oppose new exam norm
“Prior to 2002, Karnataka had public examination at Class 7. This forced students to focus on learning. But once the examination was scrapped, students were completing the primary and secondary classes without any exams," he said.

Experts and activists have blamed the non-retention policy, which was introduced as part of the Right to Education (RTE), for decreasing levels of learning among schoolchildren.

Under this, no child is retained in any class even if he fails to learn anything. Twenty-three states have sent their suggestions against the non-retention policy to MHRD.