The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class 8 and also cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to overseas Indians by amending electoral laws, a senior Government functionary said.
For overseas Indians, the Representation of the People Act needs to be amended to include proxy voting as other means to cast their votes.
It also gave its nod to the Human Resource Development Ministry's plan of creating 20 world-class institutions in the country.
An enabling provision will be made in the Right of Children for Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill which will allow States to detain students in class 5 and class 8 if they fail in the year-end exam. However, the students will have to be given a second chance to improve via an examination before they are detained. The Bill will now be placed in Parliament for approval.
Under the present provision of RTE Act, students are promoted automatically to higher classes till class 8. This is one of the key components of the RTE Act which came into force on April 1, 2010.
The Union Cabinet, which had deferred its decision in June, about creation of 20 world-class institutions in the country, also approved it.