The government’s scrapping of the no-detention policy for classes five and eight in over 3,000 central government-run schools follows from a decline in learning levels over more than a decade, according to a Moneycontrol analysis of Annual Status of Education reports (ASER) since 2008.
On December 23, the central government issued a notification ending the policy for not failing students in classes 5 and 8 in central government-run schools, five years after the Right To Education Act, 2009 was amended in 2019.
While 15 states had already followed with scrapping the policy after the 2019 amendment to the Act, the Centre was yet to follow up.
However, some states are still opposed to the idea. Tamil Nadu announced that the no-detention policy would continue.
The policy was introduced as a measure to get more people to school and provide elementary education.
While the Right to Education Act of 2009 did increase school enrollment, the no-detention policy until Class 8 has raised concerns over leaning outcomes.
According to ASER data, the number of children aged between 7 to 16 who enrolled for schools increased. According to the data, nearly 5.7 per cent of the kids between the ages of 7 to 16 didn’t go to school in 2008, this number dropped to 2.3% in 2022.
But the report also notes that learning levels, as measured by reading and arithmetic ability, also declined during this period.
While 56 percent of students in Class 5 could read Standard 2 text in 2008 and 53.4 percent could do so in 2010, these levels were never achieved in the following years.
In 2022, just 42.8 percent of Class 5 students could read Standard II text. The decline in learning levels was worse for Class 8 students.
Four in five students could read a Standard 2 text in 2008 and 2010, but only 70 percent could do so in 2022.
Two by two doesn’t equal one
Arithmetic ability worsened much further. Nearly two in five children could do division in Class V in 2008, but only one in four could do so in 2022.
Similarly, while two in three Class 8 students could do division, less than half could carry out division in 2022.
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