States like Karnataka want to scrap the ‘no retention’ policy.
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Bengaluru: From the next academic year, students studying in all schools, irrespective of their affiliation i.e. state syllabus, CBSE and ICSE, may need to appear for at least two ‘public’ examinations before reaching Class X. According to sources in the MHRD, the union government is all set to scrap the controversial ‘No Retention Policy’ which allowed the students to continue till Std X without even clearing a single examination!
According to the proposal which is now under the consideration of the MHRD, states like Karnataka want to scrap the ‘no retention’ policy. “As per the proposal, there will be one learning level test at Std IV and another annual examination at the end of the Std VIII.”
“Even though there will not be any retention till Std VIII, it has been proposed to drop the policy after Std VIII. Again at the end of Std X, students can be retained if they fail to perform well in the annual board examination,” said an officer close to developments.
“Majority of the states including Karnataka wanted to scrap the no retention policy saying such a policy has a negative impact on the approach of the students towards learning,” he said.
Ill-advised decision
According to Mr. V P Niranjanaradhya, fellow, Centre for Child and the Law, NLSIU (National Law School of India University) scrapping of the ‘no retention’ policy will lead to several problems. “It will lead to an increased dropout rate among the students, especially students from the backward and under-developed regions, besides a spurt in the dropout rate of girl children. Retention policy is also against the provisions of the RTE act, ” he explained.
Experts divided
Meanwhile, most of the private schools are happy with the sudden change in the Center’s approach towards the no retention policy. The Principal of an ICSE- affiliated school informed that since the introduction of the no- retention policy, the learning level of the students are hit badly. “If there is no examination, why should students take the classroom activities or
learning exercises seriously?” she questioned.
Mr. D. Shashikumar, General Secretary, the Karnataka Associated Management of English Medium Schools (KAMS) also echoed a similar opinion. According to him, the ‘no retention’ policy has affected the learning levels among the students. “We had petitioned the MHRD in this regard. Retention policy will lead to healthy competition among the students. Till now only few were showing seriousness in studies,” he said.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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