• The Ministry of HRD is looking to introduce a Bill to amend the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, to enable States to do away with the no-detention policy if they wish.
• Twenty-five States had recently agreed with the idea of doing away with or tweaking the no-detention policy — wherein a child is not detained till Class 8 — to give a boost to levels of learning.
• However, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra did not ask for a rollback of the policy.
• The Centre has thus decided to allow States to take the call and to tweak the RTE Act to enable them to do so. The Bill is expected to permit States to introduce exams in Classes 5 and 8.
• Students who fail in the exams — to be held in March — will be given remedial training and offered another chance to pass in May. Those who still fail will be detained in the same class.
• No-detention policy was introduced in 2010 as a part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the Right to Education Act (RTE).
• Under this policy, students up to class 8 are automatically promoted to the next class they failed in the exam.
• The no-detention policy under the RTE Act was to ensure that no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class or expelled from school until the completion of elementary education.

Source:TH