Telangana to oppose Centre’s ‘no detention policy’

The Union Ministry of HRD had proposed to revoke “no detention system” in schools from the ensuing academic year 2016-17 and had sought opinion on this from all state governments.

Mr Kadiam Srihari, deputy Chief Minister holding the education portfolio, said on Sunday that the Telangana government was not in favour of bringing back the detention system and the same would be conveyed to the Centre soon.

Addressing a women teachers’ national convention here, he said, “If the detention system is re-introduced, it will affect the students from the under-privileged sections who have no access to costly private education. Government schools were neglected by earlier governments, due to which they have no standards. The Telangana government is trying to improve standards, in government schools on par with private schools so that poorer students also get quality education for free. Till government schools reach the standards of private schools, there should not be a detention system. The same will be conveyed to the Centre soon.”

Mr Srihari added that the all-party meeting convened by the state government in Sep-tember had also resolved unanimously against the detention system.

The no-detention system was brought by the UPA government in 2010 after the Right to Education Act was enacted in Parliament in 2009, which guarantees free and compulsory education to all students till Class VIII.

The no-detention system was incorporated in the Act as several surveys conducted by government and various NGOs had revealed that the detention system was leading to high dropouts among students, especially from socially and economically weaker sections, who cannot afford costly private education.

With this, students from Class I to VIII were promoted to higher classes irrespective of whether they passed or failed in the annual exams.

However, various studies have also revealed that the no-detention system in the last five years has led to a drastic fall in education standards in schools, and encouraged students to take their academics lightly as they are guaranteed promotion to the next class.

Some state governments had written to the Centre to revoke the no-detention system to im-prove standards in schools. This prompted the NDA government, which came to power in May 2014, to review the no-detention system and sought feedback from all the states.

While 20 states supported the Centre in revoking the detention system, the TS government is against the move.