Monday, 7 January 2019

Focus on quality, not on quantity: RTE ruined the education through No-Detention-System



The Parliament passed the much needed the Right to Education (RTE) Amendment Bill that scraps the contentious No-Detention- System. It was a serious flow of the RTE Act and it must be avoided at every cost. It has completely ruined the quality of the primary and schools education. 
The negative impact of the No-Detention-System can be seen even at a higher level too. Students moving at the higher level have become very weak in studies. They have behavioural problems too. Today, students are highly undisciplined, ill-mannered and lawless. The students of JNU, Jamia, AMU, Jadhavpur University, Osmania University etc are the right example of this kind.
RTE has a heavy emphasis on physical infrastructure in schools rather than on quality education like learning and teaching standards were gone astray. With no-detention, the original RTE Act directive, Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) of children in schools was very faulty and almost fake.
In most of the schools, children were carelessly promoted forward, CCE completely failed. And now detention of students’ returns to our education system, the fear of failure will force children to study with renewed vigour. Now, students who are weak or not interested in studies will automatically leave the schools. They can use their time and resources in other things and pieces of training.
Nobody can teach a child if he is not interested in studies. A man can take a horse to a water pond but fifty men cannot make him drink the water. It applies to a child. This may also reduce the suicide rates among the students. If the number of students is reduced, then the expenditure of the government on education will also be reduced. Detention must be accompanied by stricter norms of responsibility demanded of teachers, principals, authorities and schools.
Unfortunately, many teachers, principals, authorities have made their way into the education system without requisite qualifications and then enjoy the security of tenure that doesn’t weed out non-performers and corrupts.
Only high enrolment is not a significant indicator of education access. A survey revealed that 25% 8th standard students being unable to read fluently in their mother tongue and nearly 50% failed in doing basic math and reading English sentences. In this context of poor skill acquisition by students in education cannot raise their worldly prospects.
Only serious and meritorious students should be encouraged and raised as future hope of the nation. The government should also tighten the screws of school authorities, principals and teachers.
The discourse must move forward from universal access to the right to education to quality education, not backward to increasing only numbers like vote banks. RTE failed not only the students but the education and nation too through the piecemeal controversial non-detention system. Piecemeal reforms in education are responsible for this chaos in education.  


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