RTE in for a Reality Check – ‘No Fail’ Policy Being Evaluated

The government is set re-evaluate the ‘no fail’ policy of the Right to Education, and it’s about time it did so.

Can India’s education system afford to do away with exams? (Photo: Reuters)

One of the most contentious clauses of the 2009 Right to Education Act (RTE) is likely to be axed after representatives of state governments unanimously spoke out against it.

At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), representatives from every state asked for the ‘no detention’ policy to be revoked. States also raised a flag on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) requirements, saying that they had been unable to implement the system of evaluation mandated by the RTE.

The RTE had mandated that no student up to class VIII is failed. It had also put in place the CCE in lieu of exams. Instead of facing the pressure of an annual exam process, children were to be assessed on academic and non academic performance in a holistic manner through out the year by teachers.

The policy is now being re-evaluated, but it’s lack of success has been evident and even inevitable.

Noble Intentions

Holistic education and evaluation is a noble goal and worth striving for. Certain school districts in the US, provinces in Canada and Scandinavian countries have implemented similar to those in the RTE with varying degrees of success.

The appeal of such a policy is understandable. Exams can be gruelling, they often ignore the diversity and cultural context of students, and they tend to ignore talents and capabilities beyond academics.

Failure can be traumatic for a child, but does our education infrastructure have the bandwidth to provide ‘holistic’ education?

Trying to relive students from academic pressure is a noble goal. But is it realistic? (Representational image: iStock)

Reality Check

Noble intentions aside, the sheer size of India and the abysmal condition of educational infrastructure make such a policy here untenable.

1. Not Enough Teacher’s for ‘Comprehensive Evaluation’
The RTE mandates a teacher-pupil ratio of 30:1. The national average is close, about 42:1 in 2010 and there are wide differences in regions and between urban and rural centres. State representatives also told CABE that teachers lack the training to carry out such an evaluation. As of 2014, 92% schools do not comply to RTE norms according to a Right to Education forum report.

India still has a huge shortage of teachers and basic infrastructure in schools. (Photo: Reuters)

2. No Uniformity in Curriculum
There is also no uniform or universal curriculum on which the CCE will be carried out. Each state has a different syllabus and then there is the CBSE. Determining student performance and evaluating schools is a difficult proposition as it is. Without a an objective criteria like examinations, evaluating the performance of students is almost impossible.

3. The Reality of Competition
On the one hand cut-offs to India’s premier universities is touching an unbelievable 100%, on the other hand students are not exposed to exams till class VIII and even the class X boards are optional in many cases.

Given the competitive nature of India’s higher education setup, can we afford to shelter children from competition? Examinations, for all their flaws, at least provide some measure of uniformity and standards in schools.