Assam: We Adopted Pass-Fail Exam in 2022: Dr. Ranoj Pegu

ASPTA urges minister to end no-detention policy

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Assam State Primary Teachers’ Association (ASPTA) has urged the state Education Minister, Dr. Ranoj Pegu, to go in the line of the Central Government’s decision of bringing changes in the existing no-detention policy under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.

In a letter sent to the ASPTA to this effect, the association said, “The Union Ministry of Education has left the issue of cancelling the policy of no detention to the state governments concerned. Union Education Minister Prakash Javadekar made it public. He said that, if need be, the government would amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. We demand cancellation of the no-detention policy so as to make students get quality education and respect it.”

Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr. Ranoj Pegu said today that the state government had taken the decision in 2022 to have examinations in Class V and VIII for the promotion and detention of students. “It is the school that will decide if a student is detained for a year. There is the provision of allowing an unsuccessful student to appear in the examination for the second time. If the student qualifies in the second sitting, he or she will get a promotion. Now, the Union Ministry is making this system uniform all over India that Assam has already done. No student should fail. I want all students to pass examinations,” Dr. Pegu said.

On the manner and conditions subject to which a student can be detained, the Union ministry said, “There shall be regular examination in the fifth class and in the eighth class at the end of every academic year. After the conduct of a regular examination, if a child fails to fulfil the promotion criteria, as notified from time to time, he shall be given additional instruction and opportunity for examination within a period of two months from the date of declaration of 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.”

The Union Ministry, however, spelt it out that ‘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 specialized inputs after identifying the learning gaps at various stages of assessment. The head of the school shall maintain a list of children who are held back and personally monitor the provisions provided for specialized inputs to such children and their progress with respect to the identified learning gaps. The examination and re-examination shall be competency-based examinations to achieve the holistic development of the child and not be based on memorization and procedural skills. No child shall be expelled from any school till he completes elementary education.”

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