Why does the government in a rush to push through the ‘New Education policy’, to  bring back the system of detention in elementary schools? Why doesn’t the government and the HRD Ministry give time for vetted experts in education to discuss it?

Ahead of the 64th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in New Delhi on Tuesday (29 Nov), activists fighting for uniform and equitable education have questioned the haste with which the proposal for limiting the ‘no detention’ policy in schools to class V from the current class VIII has been listed for discussion at the meeting.

The proposal to amend the existing policy, rolled out as part of the Right to Education Act regime, was first made public in the document ‘Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, 2016’ hosted online by the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development. The Ministry had given time till September 30 to stakeholders for registering their responses to the proposal.

Several stakeholders had sent in their responses, both opposing and welcoming the proposal. While the Ministry has not made public the responses received or its decision on them, it has chosen to discuss it at the CABE meeting.

“This is inappropriate,” says Prince Gajendra Babu, convener of the Tamil Nadu State Platform for Common School System (TNSPCSS), who is opposed to limiting the ‘no detention policy’ up to class V.

According to him, those opposed to the proposed policy feel that detention would in no way help to improve the learning outcomes and instead only help to filter and certify some students as “academically weak”. “This in turn would eliminate the children from disadvantaged sections, more particularly the girl child, from the mainstream school education,” he cautions.

In separate representations sent to the Union HRD Ministry and the Tamil Nadu School Education Ministry, he has pointed out that there were hardly 14 working days between the deadline for sending suggestions on the Draft New Education Policy and the CABE meeting. “Given the short period of time, is it possible to consolidate all suggestions received and document the same? Without fully understanding the suggestions given by the people, how will the report be tabled in the CABE, which is the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Government on Education, for its consideration,” he asks.

Having placed a document on the public domain and asked the people to give suggestions, it would only be just to study them before taking a decision, he says, calling for constitution of a committee comprising educationists representing all States and different social groups to frame the NEP.

  education, National Education Policy