Analysis Of The No Detention Policy Under The Right To Education Act

Abstract

Education is a human right with an immense power to transform the society. It plays an instrumental role in the economic growth of a nation and female education particularly plays an important role in the process of economic growth and development. Education also plays an important role in lowering the fertility and mortality rates. Moreover, the returns to education are large and positive. Schooling has seen to have a positive impact on agricultural output, and is proved to create a more constructive citizenry (in political and social terms). India has the largest child population in the world. The number of children under the age of 18 years rose from 428 million in 2001 to 430 million in 2006 and is projected to remain above 400 million in the coming decade. As per the 2011 census, India has 158.7 million children in the age group of 0-6 years. This comprises of nearly 16% of the total Indian population. During the period of 2001-11, considerable progress has been made in improving literacy rate amongst population aged between 7 and above. the most prominent initiative taken by the State in this regard is the 86th Amendment in the Constitution and the legislation that followed, i.e. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE). The Section 16 of the Right to Education Act mandates that no child can be detained or held back in a class until the completion of his/her elementary education. This provision, read along with Section 29(h) of the Act, has given a legal status to the principle of no detention and the development of a progressive and holistic evaluation framework, both of which were enunciated in the National Policy on Education, 1986 and also NCF 2005. The focus of this paper is on the merits and demerits of Section 16 i.e. the No Detention Policy of the Act. However, Section 29 (h), which introduced a new method of assessment of students i.e. CCE pattern is also intertwined with the former provision due to the fact that both provisions are corollary to each other.