Scrapping of no detention policy: How we failed our children by failing them

This article is authored by Debargha Roy, a research fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi.

Three decades after Dr Manmohan Singh's landmark economic liberalisation of 1991, and years after his tenure as Prime Minister (PM), many of his signature reforms face mounting challenges from populist rhetoric and policies. The most recent one of them being the complete scrapping of the no detention policy (NDP)--an integral part of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Act (RTE Act). Under the new policy, students in classes 5 and 8 across government and private schools, including state government-run schools, will face annual examinations and can be detained after failing two attempts. This change follows the 2019 dilution of the policy, which allowed states to introduce detention at the elementary level. For parents, particularly those struggling to make ends meet, this means bearing the cost of additional years of schooling – from textbooks to uniforms to tuition fees. The change follows a troubling trend since 2014: More board exams, more tests, and more pressure on young minds to ‘perform or fail.’

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Proponents of detention cite declining learning outcomes, increasing dropouts in classes 9-10, decreasing student motivation, lack of teacher motivation, and the need for system-wide accountability among teachers, students, and parents. Critics, however, point to several counterarguments: the absence of correlation between declining student outcomes and detention, the demoralising effect on failing students, lack of evidence showing improved outcomes from grade repetition, and no clear positive results in states that scrapped NDP. Research actually indicates that removing NDP reduces student morale and impacts their mental health, disproportionately affects vulnerable children, increases chances of child labour and shows no positive impact on learning. Children are bearing the burden of the State's failure to properly implement continuous and comprehensive evaluation, maintain appropriate student-teacher ratios, and provide adequate teacher training- which are the prime causes leading to poor learning outcomes.

We have forgotten that the no detention policy was introduced alongside CCE with a focus on holistic learning. The problem arose when CCE was misunderstood in India, leading to rote-learning and memory-based tests instead of serving its original purpose: A means for teachers to gather information about students' understanding. Over the years, assessments devolved into tests of information retention, promoting rote learning. This led to declining student performance, and now, instead of correcting our fundamental misunderstanding of the assessment system, we are choosing to scrap the no detention policy—an approach that fails to address the root cause of the problem.

The complete scrapping of NDP marks a decisive shift away from the child-centric focus of the Right to Education Act, which prioritised children's dignity and their freedom to learn without fear or indignity. This child-centric approach is evident throughout the Act's provisions, including age-appropriate class placement, mother tongue instruction, protection from harassment and corporal punishment, and prohibitions on admission screening and expulsion. Learning was never intended to be a one-way transfer of knowledge from teacher to pupil that could be evaluated through tests, but a process where children construct their own understanding, with teachers serving as facilitators. The Act was designed to protect this process from pressure, punishment, humiliation, and fear – including fear of outcomes. Today, we risk replacing genuine learning experiences with an over-emphasis on examinations, mock tests, and early exposure to failure anxiety.

Another crucial concern is the legal implications of creating two distinct classes of children: those who pass and advance, and those left behind in classes 5 or 8. This segregation, unsupported by research demonstrating improved learning outcomes through detention, is unlikely to meet constitutional standards under Right to Equality. Moreover, detention violates a child's right to free and compulsory education by denying them access to age-appropriate education in favour of result-based placement, undermining the fundamental principle of dignity in learning that the Act was designed to protect.

The dismantling of the no-detention policy represents more than just an educational reform – it represents the story of every child who will now face the stigma of failure at an age when they should be discovering their potential. While we debate learning outcomes and accountability metrics, our children are learning a different lesson altogether – that their worth is measured not by their curiosity, creativity, or determination, but by examination scores. By failing students, we are failing the promise we made to every child about their right to education with dignity. As we replace this fundamental understanding of learning laid down by the erstwhile RTE Act, as a prominent reform under the Manmohan Singh-led government, with a system today that sorts and segregates young minds based on examination results, we must ask ourselves: Are we creating better learners, or are we pushing more children towards the margins of society? Perhaps the greatest test before us is not the one we're imposing on our fifth and eighth graders, but whether we can still preserve education as a fundamental right rather than a privilege earned through test scores – a vision that once promised every child the dignity to learn without fear of failure. By failing our children, we are failing them.

This article is authored by Debargha Roy, a research fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi.