‘No Detention Policy’ Scrapped for Classes 5 and 8 Students

Students of classes 5 and 8 will be held back if they fail to fulfill the promotion criteria, that is to pass the yearly exam. This has come into effect as the Centre scraps the ‘No Detention’ policy for students of classes 5 and 8.

As per a gazette notification, if a child fails to fulfill the promotion criteria, he or she would be given additional instruction and opportunity for re-examination within a period of two months from the declaration of the results.

“If the child appearing in the re-examination fails to fulfil the promotion criteria again, he shall be held back in fifth class or eighth class, as the case may be. During the holding back of the child, the class teacher shall guide the child as well as the parents of the child, if necessary, and provide specialised inputs after identifying the learning gaps at various stages of assessment," the notification said.

However, no child would be expelled from any school until he or she completes the elementary education, Ministry of Education said.  The notification would be applicable to over 3,000 schools run by the central government including Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools.

A senior official said that following the amendment to the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2019, already 16 states and two union territories have scraped the no-detention policy for these two classes.

“Haryana and Puducherry have not made any decision yet while remaining states and UTs have decided to continue with the policy," the senior official said.