Gujarat: Teachers welcome RTE detention, experts slam

The government's amendment to RTE allowing for a child to be detained in class 5 and 8 has received a mixed response from experts across the state, with some even calling it regressive. But most primary school teachers DNA talked to welcomed the move, calling it a much-needed amendment.

"Detention is a must. What had happened on account of RTE's no detention policy is that children no more feared exams and did not bother to study," said a primary school teacher who did not wish to be named. "We are not in favour of children taking stress because of exams. However, it is also important that the children take things seriously. There is a way to test the students and there are consequences of students not clearing the test will act as a motivation," said the teacher.

He said what was happening was that a child would score zero in a subject but he would still be promoted. "As long as he made it to the next class, there was no fear of lagging behind literally even if he was lagging behind in his studies,"said the teacher.

Sukhdev Patel, who has worked on RTE since it was first conceptualised, said the 'detention' policy being proposed shows that the Indian psyche can't think beyond exams. "I am not against evaluating children. Let there be exams in secondary and higher secondary schools. World over, children in primary schools are evaluated and when found lacking, the teachers work on their weaknesses. It is only in India that we are obsessed with 'failing' a student," said Patel.

He said the argument that students do not take studies seriously if there are no exams is rubbish. "It is nothing but an excuse for the state government and teachers to hide their failure. Everyone is talking of how the no detention policy was affecting education but no one is breathing a word about an earlier amendment that talked of comprehensive and continuous evaluation," said Patel. He said the evaluation was meant to address the deficiencies of no detention policy. "But the state government did not bother to implement continuous and comprehensive evaluation," said Patel.

He said the statements by the education minister that the no detention was affecting the education outcomes in Gujarat was nothing but an excuse. "You can look at the education indices of the state before 2009 when RTE was not in place. Gujarat has not improved much. The no detention policy is an excuse to hide our poor performance," said Patel.

FOR THE MOVE

Detention is a must. What had happened on account of RTE’s no detention policy is that children no more feared exams and did not bother to study, said a teacher.