Education experts not happy with Rajya Sabha decision

PUNE: In what is pointed out by the activists to be quite a regressive development on part of the government, the Rajya Sabha has scrapped the 'No Detention' policy, proposing amendment to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act. It will now be the prerogative of the states to decide whether or not to keep the policy or not.

While the popular opinion tilts towards scrapping of the policy, the experts in the field of education feel that doing away with the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and bringing in the traditional examinations is like taking a step back towards the system of assessment that we know has failed big time.

“It was the failure of our government and administration that CCE could not be a success, when it is so efficiently implemented in many other countries like the USA, Japan, etc,” said veteran educationist AL Deshmukh.

“The action sheets (practical-based question papers) introduced in the Board examinations has its roots in the CCE. The fact that the students and parents are afraid of the action sheets shows that they are not at all in sync with the CCE method. The fault lies in lack of proper training in teachers, who in turn could not implement the modern evaluation system efficiently. It is unfortunate that India failed to adopt the method that has been so successful in many other countries,” Deshmukh added.

Commenting on the issue, Vasant Kalpande, former chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), said that introducing detention is no solution to the deteriorating quality of education. “There are several aspects to be evaluated in the students, which cannot be assessed through the traditional written examinations. CCE is the best method to explore and evaluate a child's overall personality. It was lack of willpower that could not make such a tried and tested method in India. Instead, we are now going back to a system that has failed over the ages,” Kalpande stated.

Adv. Anubha Sahai of India Wide Parents Association said, “The detention policy will end up adding more pressure on the students. The government said that research has shown that children are not doing well in the current evaluation system. The government should understand that this is due to the bad quality of education and not the method of evaluation.”