Tripura government scraps no-detention policy for students till Class VIII

AGARTALA: Nine years after the Right to Education Act was implemented, doing away with detention for students up to Class VIII, the BJP government in Tripura has decided to scrap the no-detention policy - one of the first to do so since the Act was amended in January this year.
It will be replaced by annual evaluation in Class V and Class VIII from this academic session.
"The state government has decided to re-introduce the pass-fail system in Tripura this year. This follows the Centre's decision on the same lines in a bid to ensure education for all under the Right to Education Act," education minister Ratan Lal Nath said.
As a first step, the Tripura government has decided students of Class I to IV and Class VI to VIII will be evaluated but won't have to give any exams. However, students in Class V and Class VIII will be promoted to the next class if they pass the exam.
In its unamended form, the Right to Education Act, 2009 prohibited detention of any student up to Class VIII. An NCERT survey conducted last year, however, indicated that barring five states - Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana and Sikkim - all others thought the policy was affecting the quality of education. Tripura had then said it had led to a "state of inattention to the teaching-learning process on the part of the children" and had led to irregular attendance of both students and teachers.
Taking this into account, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019, passed in January this year, states, "The appropriate Government may allow schools to hold back a child in the fifth class or in the eighth class or in both classes, in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed." However, "no child shall be expelled from a school till the completion of elementary education."