Contradicting the provisions of Right to Education (RTE) enabling promotion of students without detaining them in same class despite their poor
performance till eighth standard, State School Education and literacy Minister Neera Yadav on Wednesday said that “no fail policy was a hurdle in providing quality education to the students”.
Yadav, while speaking to media persons here at CM Janta Darbar, also said that due to the ‘no-fail policy’ students are reluctant to work hard for excellence.
“If we really need quality education, then we will have to drop this no-fail policy so that the children could get a feeling that the hard work they are doing will not go waste,” said Yadav.
Yadav further added that she had also approached former Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani last year in this regard who had asked all the states to give their views in writing so that proper steps could be taken in this matter.
According to the ‘No-fail’ policy, no student up to Class VIII could be detained or failed. All students up to Class VIII are automatically promoted to the next class.
The no-detention policy was implemented as part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the RTE Act by the then Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibbal in the year 2010 to ensure holistic development of students. The idea was to reduce dropout rates in schools.
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation emphasises on evaluating a child throughout the year, and not just based on performance in one or two term exams.
Yadav, during Janta Darbar, heard the problems of 125 aggrieved persons and tried to solve their problems then and there by giving directions to the concerned officials. Cases of all types, including land dispute, pension related and abduction, were brought to her notice in which proper directions were given by her, she said.
“In some of the cases, there appears to be clear-cut carelessness on the part of the district administration. I have directed officials not to ignore the problems directly related to the public and take proper action after investigations,” said Yadav.
“If some of the problems are coming to Janta Darbar again and again, it means that the problems are being overlooked by the district administration and will talk to the CM in this regard,” she said.
Rita Barnwal, coming from Bhandaridih of Giridih complained that her own brothers have been trying to throw her out of her house in which she has been residing along with her four children and husband for a long time.
“My mother had transferred a piece of land to me when she was alive in which I constructed a six-room house from my own hard earned money.
But as soon as my mother died, my brothers started torturing me asking to vacate the house which had been transferred in my name by my mother,” said aggrieved Rita Barnwal.
She said that her brothers, Prem Prakash Swarnkar and Ravindra Swarnkar, even threatened her husband to leave the house or he will be killed. He is now staying away from his family in Ramgarh.
“They even beat us when they come here and have locked five out of six rooms after throwing all our belongings out of it,” said daughter Chandni. Despite repeated complaints made with the police, no action has been taken so far against them.
The Minister taking quick action in this regard immediately talked to the Giridih SP and asked him to look into the matter personally.
Sheelvanti Devi coming from Ranchi complained that her son studying in class 9 in Army School, Deepatoli has gone missing for the last 17 days and the police have failed to trace him out.
“The Police have not been taking the matter seriously….. We went to the SSP several times but he says they are searching him. They have not been able to trace him out,” said Sheelavanti Devi.
The minister asked Ranchi SSP why they have not been able to trace the child so far and directed him to show results as soon as possible.
Purushottam Pandit coming from Dumka complained that some of the heavyweights of the area have captured his land and broke his leg when they opposed it. The minister after hearing his problem talked to Dumka SP and asked him to look into matter and help Pandit getting his land back.