Maharashtra Govt Proposes Revocation of No-Detention Policy In Schools

Mumbai: Maharashtra government in its report on the draft of National New Education Policy has recommended that exams should be held in all schools, otherwise, students tend to ignore studies. The report stated that 'No Exams' is nothing but a misconception spread among parents. The no-detention policy, a key component of the RTE Act, was enforced on April 1, 2010 with an aim to ensure that every child between the age of 6 and 14 studies in school.

The idea behind the policy was to minimise the number of students who drop out of the schooling system because of failure and are too embarrassed or de-motivated to repeat a year. The state government in its suggestion advocates Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for students so that the marks of these regular tests can be summed up for evaluation at the end of the year. Among the various concerns discussed in the report the state government has advocated the need to engage parents as partners in education.

"Parent Teacher Associations are to be strengthened. 'Class-wise parents' meeting should be held, house visits by the teachers should be made necessary, using Social Media like WhatsApp, MSS, SMS, by parents for students performance, reports cards of the students are to be discussed with the parents, 'Open House' concepts is to be implemented, schools must get involved in the social Festivals actively and 'Public Reading' (Chawadi Wachan) is to be done to uplift the image of the school and the Students," it states. It further states that to encourage parents participation in sending children to schools, the school authorities should felicitate them who send their child to school regularly. State Education minister Vinod Tawde said that the policy has not yet been finalised. "The state government had organised a debate in 32,000 villages and invited suggestions from education experts, principals, teachers associations and parents associations. This has happened for the first time, I have not seen this happening in the earlier government," Tawde said.