All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) Ganjam district president Kartik C Mohanty recently submitted a memorandum to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani urging her to immediately withdraw the “No Detention Policy” and reintroduce Board Examination in the country.
Quoting media reports, the memorandum said the last CABE meeting held in August had unanimously adopted a resolution to revoke the ‘No Detention Policy” and reintroduce board examination. Most of the States are also of the same opinion, it read.
It may be noted that the Union Government had introduced the said policy in the country in 2010 as a part of the Right to Education Act during the Congress-led UPA rule.
AIDSO demanded the re-introduction of pass-fail system at the earliest, as any further delay in the matter would lead to deterioration of the school education system.
Citing examples of negative impacts of the policy, Mohanty said 46.3 per cent of all children in Standard-V even could not read Standard-II level text in 2010 and this proportion was increased to 51.8 per cent in 2011 and to 53.2 per cent in 2012.
Similarly, the percentage of Standard-V children enrolled in Government schools who were found unable to read Standard-II level text has also increased from 49.3 per cent in 2010 to 56.2 per cent in 2011 and to 58.3 per cent in 2012, the memorandum pointed out.
The memorandum further apprised the Minister that 29.1 per cent Standard V students failed to solve simple two-digit subtraction problems with borrowing in 2010 and this proportion was further increased to 39 per cent in 2011 and again to 46.5 per cent in 2012.
Introduction of the policy has also increased drop-out rate for which schools are now being forced to close their shutters, paving the way for privatisation of primary education in the country, Mohanty argued, informing that 3.57 crore signatures in favor of this withdrawal demand had been submitted to the Central but unfortunately UPA-II Government didn’t pay any heed.
The memorandum described the above policy as undemocratic, anti-people and destructive and demanded to revoke the policy and to reintroduce compulsory board education system at the earliest.