Page 16 - EW January 2025

Education News

DELHI which requires additional work and
Woke provision repealed training. In the circumstances, the

no-detention mandate of the RTE
Act proved a disaster as several mil-
lion children with rock-bottom learn-
ing outcomes have been routinely
promoted to the next class.
It's surprising that ss. 29 and
30 were included in the RTE Act,
because the yearly Annual Status of
Education Reports (ASER) of the
independent Pratham Education
Foundation (as routinely reported
by EducationWorld) had been
highlighting the abysmal reading
and numeracy learning outcomes
of primary school children in rural
India. As a result over the past 15
years, millions of children with no
real education have been pitchforked
into secondary education forcing
Class V students in Delhi: exams back this year lowering of assessment standards in
secondary and higher education.
t’s official. the revolutionary These commendably liberal provi- Now with the latest (2023) ASER
mandate of the historic Right of sions of the RTE Act, 2009 which be- report indicating that almost half of
IChildren to Free & Compulsory latedly mandated free and compulso- 18-year-olds struggle with reading
Education (aka RTE) Act, 2009 to ry public education for every child 62 and numeracy attainments they
abolish all exams for children in el- years after independence — almost should have acquired in class V,
ementary school (classes I-VIII) has all Asian countries had introduced and higher education leaders loudly
been revoked. free and compulsory public primary/ complaining about the poor founda-
Five years after this intent was elementary education in the 1950s — tional learning of school-leavers, the
notified in 2019, on December 16, bears the stamp and imprint of woke BJP/NDA government at the Centre
the Central government amended limousine liberal Kapil Sibal who and in 18 states have issued notifica-
RTE Rules under a Gazette of India was Union HRD/education minister tions for restoration of classes V and
notification restoring year end ex- of the Congress-led UPA-II govern- VIII exams from the start of the next
aminations for children in classes V ment at the Centre at that time. academic year.
and VIII of all government and CBSE In retrospect, it’s clear that Sibal, However, children who fail to pass
schools. In the original RTE Act also a top-ranked lawyer of the these exams are required to be given
under s.29 (2), term and final year Supreme Court who reportedly earns additional instruction and opportu-
examinations in elementary educa- over Rs.50 crore per year for his nity for re-examination within two
tion (classes I-VIII) were forbid- contribution towards the country’s months. “If the child appearing in
den to “make the child free of fear, infamous and dreaded legal system, the re-examination referred in sub-
trauma, and anxiety”. clearly had no idea of the grassroots rule (2), fails to fulfil the promotion
Instead, a process described as realities of India’s K-12 education, criteria again, he shall be held back
“comprehensive and continuous especially rural public education. in fifth class or eighth class, as the
evaluation of the child's understand- Comprehensive and continuous case may be,” to redo the curricu-
ing and ability to apply knowledge” evaluation (CCE) in the country’s lum. “The Head of the school shall
was recommended in lieu of ex- 1.10 million government schools maintain a list of children who are
aminations. Moreover, s. 30 of the was doomed to fail because indo- held back and personally monitor
RTE Act explicitly prohibited formal lent, indifferent teachers of govern- the provisions provided for special-
board exams for children in classes ment schools defined by crumbling ised inputs to such children and
I-VIII. “No child shall be required buildings, multi-grade teaching and their progress with respect to the
to pass any Board examination till conspicuously lacking lavatories, identified learning gaps,” states the
completion of elementary educa- laboratories and libraries couldn’t notification.
tion,” said the section. be expected to implement CCE Most experienced educators

16 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2025