Page 22 - EW August 2023

Education News

MAHARASHTRA seriously and test children’s learn-
Solomon-like decree ing outcomes every few years, if not

annually. “In the new digital age,
evaluation systems have changed for
better and will ease teachers load.
Therefore, it’s good that these exams
have been re-introduced,” she says.
Swapnil Jagatap, headmaster
of Natwar Nagar Mumbai Public
School, Jogeshwari agrees. “The
prospect of detention in the same
class will certainly bring back the lev-
el of seriousness for learning which
went missing in primary education
during the past few years. Moreover,
social attitudes towards failure need
to change. Repeating a class means
that the learner has a chance to
Class V children in Maharashtra: make-or-break exams back re-learn, rather than carry on to the
next class with half-baked learning,”
espite the landmark right of re-examined within says Jagatap.
Children to Free & Compul- two months from the In this connection,
Dsory Education (RTE) Act, declaration of the it’s notable that make-
2009, having decreed that in the in- result of the annual or-break exams have
terests of joyous, stress-free learning examination. If the not been introduced for
in primary education (class I-VIII), child fails in the re- every year of primary/
children won’t be subjected to public examination, he shall elementary education
examinations and every child shall be held back in the (class I-VIII). To that
be promoted until class VIII (s.16), class V or class VIII Ophelia Barreto extent, the Maharashtra
Maharashtra’s breakaway Shiv as the case may be. government’s exams
Sena and BJP coalition government However, no child re-introduction order is
has re-introduced make-or-break shall be expelled from the school till well-spaced out and accepts the logic
examinations in classes V and VIII. the completion of elementary educa- that annual examinations are stress-
Children who fail these exams twice tion.” ful for children in primary education.
will be held back and not promoted After over a decade of adherence It represents a via media between
to the next class. This is in line with with s.16 of the RTE Act and compli- prolonged no-testing and rigorous
the amendment to the RTE Act leg- ance with the no-detention decree, examination at reasonable inter-
islated by the BJP/NDA government this initiative has been welcomed by vals — in the critical years before
at the Centre in 2019. the majority of parents and princi- entering middle and high school.
The Maharashtra education pals. “It’s important that children This perhaps explains why there has
ministry’s gazette notification dated study seriously in their foundational been widespread acceptance of this
June 23 decrees: “There shall be an years to build a strong platform for Solomon-like decree.
annual examination at the end of future learning. Now with exams Nasrin Modak Siddiqi (Mumbai)
every academic year of class V and back we will be able to measure the
VIII. The State Council of Education- actual progress of children and en- TAMIL NADU
al Research and Training (SCERT), sure they are prepared for secondary
Maharashtra (Academic Authority) education,” says Sheetal Dhotre, Shocking outcome
shall determine the format and pro- speaking as a teacher (AM Naik
cedure for the annual examination, School, Powai) and parent. n the popular imagination, the
re-examination and evaluation of Ophelia Barreto, principal of peninsular state of Tamil Nadu
classes V and VIII. If the (sic) child Podar International School, Santa I(pop.68 million) is India’s most
fails to pass the annual examination, Cruz, admits that the workload educated state churning out lakhs of
then such a child shall be provided of primary teachers will increase, well-educated doctors, engineers and
additional supplementary guid- but it’s important for children and scientists year on year. Therefore, a
ance for the respective subjects and teachers to take primary education big slippage in school learning out-

22 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2023