The central government is set to introduce the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017, in Parliament’s winter session that began on December 15, clearing the path to detain children in class V, VIII or both, while allowing for re-examination. However, education being on the concurrent list, the Central government can’t force the states to follow suit and reintroduce the pass-fail system solely in classes V and VIII. On December 22, Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal’s education minister, met representatives of teachers’ associations, academics and leaders of the opposition to decide from which class and when the pass-fail system should be reintroduced in the state’s 92,000 government schools.

The Centre’s Bill proposes to amend s.16 of the RTE Act which prohibits detention of children in any year until class VIII. But under the Amendment Bill, a re-examination is to be conducted for failed students within two months of declaration of results. On subsequent failure after re-examination, such students will be obliged to repeat the class as per directions of the ‘appropriate government’ — i.e, governments at the Centre, state and Union territories can frame Rules which may differ. However, no students are permitted to be expelled until the completion of elementary education (class VIII). 

West Bengal along with Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland, Odisha and Daman & Diu have supported the Centre’s decision to abolish the RTE Act’s no-detention provision (NDP). These states are blaming NDP for the declining learning outcomes of children in public school-leaving examinations (classes X and XII). 

Under the RTE Act, 2009, as guaranteed by Article 21-A of the Constitution, every child between 6-14 years of age is entitled to free and compulsory education. It included the NDP because of the perception that children from underprivileged households were dropping out of primary education in large numbers because of fear of failure in annual examinations. To evaluate the performance of children, the Act proposed the continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) system as an alternative to year-end examinations. The December 22 meeting convened by Chatterjee revealed deep divisions within the state’s political parties and teachers’ community over the Bill’s proposal to drop the NDP. Even while it was in the opposition when the RTE Act was enacted in 2009, the TMC had protested s.16 of the RTE Act. 

The TMC did not change its stand after coming to power in 2011 and in its feedback sent to the Union HRD ministry, which was sought during the tenure of Smriti Irani as HRD minister, the TMC government had informed the Centre about its intent to reintroduce the detention system, subject to a retest for unsuccessful students.

Chatterjee is reportedly disturbed over complaints that academic standards of schools, particularly in rural areas, have been declining since the scrapping of the pass-fail system in elementary education. The minister has the support of renowned educationist Pabitra Sarkar on this issue. Sarkar, who played a key role in shaping the Left Front government’s education policy, believes that NDP has damaged primary education in the state. “School teachers across the state believe that the policy has completely failed. However, improving learning outcomes won’t be possible by reverting to the annual assessment system. Efforts should be made to design a format under which students won’t be scared to write exams,” says Sarkar.

According to Jyotirmoy Mukherjee, former West Bengal Higher Secondary Council president, the CCE system is best for students. “The government has to provide proper infrastructure and trained teachers to ensure success of this humane assessment system. Otherwise any type of evaluation — continuous or terminal — will end up passing the blame to students,” warns Mukherjee. 

Nevertheless, the consensus within West Bengal’s intelligentsia is that NDP prompts students’ complacency and lack of competitive spirit in their early years which is difficult to revive in secondary education, leaving them unprepared for highly competitive higher secondary examinations which determine college admissions. It also causes unreasonable and undisciplined behaviour. 

The consensus of opinion is that too many students unused to writing exams until class VIII tend to become unnerved when obliged to write them in secondary and higher secondary school. Therefore the re-introduction of periodic competitive exams in elementary education will be in the best interests of the children of West Bengal. 

Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)