The Right to Education Act provides for no detention of any student till Class 8. However, there has been much debate on this clause, with surmounting pressure for revocation of the No-Detention Policy and Continuous & Comprehensive Learning. However, “No detention” does not mean “no assessment”. CCE is the evaluation method under NDP, where assessment is for learning” and not mere passing/ failing. The twin deas of NDP and CCE must therefore be seen together. Further, research evidence indicates that detention of students by a year or more does not improve learning. Even the Gita Bhukkal Committee admits that there is no research (anywhere in the world) that shows that repeating helps children perform better. But research does say that repeating has adverse academic and social effects on the child. Moreover, NDP and CCE make for a better system of teacher accountability as the teachers can be held to task for “learning levels”, not just passing or failing the child. Failing children only punishes the child [and his/her parents]. The older system of failures and detention was recognized as detrimental to quality education and learning, being only “exam-oriented”. Reverting back to an acknowledged poor system would be a retrograde step. In fact, this clause is also linked to the provision of Special Training for age appropriate admissions. Unfortunately special training is not being conducted systematically. It is conducted as a general programme, not geared to individual needs, with children ‘pushed’ into the age appropriate class at the beginning of the session. Unsurprisingly these children perform badly, and if there is an amendment to the NDP they are likely to ‘fail’, leading to their dropping out once again.
Suggested Citation: Kiran Bhatty, Geetha Nambissan, Poonam Batra, Gunjan Sharma, Anuradha De and Anjali Mody (2015). No-Detention Policy and Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
