Thiruvananthapuram: States can decide on all-pass system

Thiruvananthapuram: It was a victory for the state government with the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) approving its stand that it was the discretion of the state government to decide on whether to do away with the non-detention scheme till standard VIII.

The state had been opposing the Union government stand on scrapping the scheme. At the CABE meeting chaired by HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, most of the states wanted to do away with the all-pass system in standard V and standard VIII. Now detention was allowed only in standard VIII.

However, education minister C. Raveendranath who represented the state at the meeting held on Tuesday wanted the present practice to continue.

The HRD minister approved the suggestion to bring in an amendment which will give states the freedom to review the ‘no-detention’ policy.

Earlier, sub-committees constituted by CABE had also recommended that the ‘no-detention’ provision should be revoked. The final decision on the issue would, however, be subjected to the ratification of the Union cabinet.

Many states have sought to scrap the policy. However, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has advised the Union government against scrapping.

NCERT had pointed out that the policy has been most effective in checking dropout rate. Doing away with it could lead to a spiral in the number of school goers dropping out, NCERT pointed out.