New Delhi, Apr 19 (PTI) Several prestigious schools of Delhi-NCR have allegedly held back students in Classes 6 and 7 in violation of the Right to Education Act of 2009, education activists and parents said.

The Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education notified rules regarding ‘Examination and Holding Back in Certain Cases’ in December 2024 after the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 was amended in 2019.

“The amended rules allow schools to detain students in Classes 5 and 8 only, that too after giving them additional opportunity for re-examination within two months from the date of declaration of results,” advocate and education activist Ashok Aggarwal told PTI.

“Before the amendment, there was a no detention policy till Class 8. However, the government amended the Act and made a provision for detention at 5th and 8th grade. However, many private schools are dictating their terms to parents in violation of the Act.” Several parents complained that schools insist they either take a school leaving certificate or let the child repeat the class in the 6th or 7th grade.

“My son is in Class 6 and we have been told that if he does not clear the re-exam scheduled in May, he will not be promoted to the next class. But norms say that students cannot be detained in classes other than 5 and 8. My son couldn’t score well due to bad health this year,” a parent based in Gurgaon said on condition of anonymity.

Educationist Prof Anita Rampal, who was associated with the Faculty of Education in Delhi University, expressed surprise at the blatant disregard for the Act by public schools.

“If schools detain children in Classes 6 and 7, they are making a mockery of the RTE Act. I advise their parents to file complaints in the nearest district or session courts,” Prof Rampal said.

“Schools must understand that the Act gives certain constitutional rights to children,” she added.

Ashok Ganguly, former chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), said that neither the Right to Education Act nor the National Education Policy and the National Curriculum Framework allow any school to detain a student in Classes 6 and 7.

Ganguly suggested that even detaining students in Classes 5 and 8 can be questioned at this stage due to the absence of laid-down procedures by the respective state government and education boards.

“So far as detention in Classes 5 and 8 is concerned, respective states or boards were supposed to issue necessary directions, and so far as I know, no state has done so,” Ganguly said.

Section 16A of the RTE Act stipulates that there shall be regular examinations in Classes 5 and 8 at the end of every academic year. “If a child fails to fulfil the promotion criteria, he shall be given additional opportunity for re-examination within two months from the date of declaration of results.” The rules further say that if the child appearing for re-examination fails to fulfil the promotion criteria, he shall be held back in Class 5 or 8, as the case may be.

“No child shall be expelled from any school till he completes elementary education,” the rule says.

According to a document uploaded on the website of the Department of School Education and Literacy, compelling a child to repeat a class is demotivating.

“Repeating a class does not give the child any special resources to deal with the same syllabus requirements for yet another year. Parents and friends of such children also tend to view them as being ‘fit for failure’, thereby reinforcing the school’s perception while declaring a child ‘fail’,” it said.

“The ‘no detention’ provision in the RTE Act does not imply abandoning procedures that assess children’s learning. The RTE Act provides for putting in place a continuous and comprehensive evaluation procedure, a procedure that will be non-threatening, releases the child from fear and trauma of failure and enables the teacher to pay individual attention to the child’s learning and performance,” the document added.

Following the amendment to the Right to Education Act in 2019, at least 18 states and Union Territories such as Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Jammu and Kashmir have already done away with the ‘no-detention policy’ for the two classes.

Asked about the delay in notification since the amendment was approved in 2019, Ministry of Education officials explained that the new National Education Policy was announced within six months of the amendment. PTI GJS JP RUK RUK