Abstract: India’s flagship programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for Universaliation of Elementary Education has enhanced enrolment rate and retention of children in school. The country has now shifted its focus from retention to quality of education for improvement in children’s learning achievements. Various strategies have been taken up by different states to enhance enrolment, improve access, retention, enhancing learning and developing employable skills in children through NVEQF.
UNESCO has also included these issues in its General Education Quality Analysis Framework (GEQAF) and has tested these 14 tools in India by undertaking pilot studies in Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya. In view of gathering information regarding some of these issues, some important observations were made during the field work in a government school of Madhya Pradesh located in a village.
The Govt. of Madhya Pradesh has implemented various schemes to address issues of retention and enhancing enrolment under SSA and RTE (Right To Education). These include Mid-day-meals (MDM), bicycles, books, uniform, scholarship, etc. which cover all kinds of needs of school going children. These arrangements increased enrolment of children surprisingly. More girls are enrolled in this village located co-ed school. But when it comes to quality of education and learning achievement of children, it is a serious concern. When parents and teachers were interviewed, 100% parents said that “we are not afraid of attendance and their studies because our children will definitely be promoted to the next class”. Teachers also told that “children are reluctant to study”. This single thought has led to very poor performance. More than 95% children could not read 3 letter English words, were unable to write simple English alphabets and could not copy and write sentences from their books. The situation is similar in all the subjects. Besides, poor attendance of children in schools, reluctance of teachers is also there because of lots of other non-teaching work, etc.
The paper similar observations have also been presented besides showcasing status of ‘No Detention Policy’ on different states. This paper is aimed to bring this mater for discussion in the seminar and come up with certain suggestions/ remedial measures to overcome these problems faced due to ‘No Detention Policy’.
Keywords: Quality in Education, No Detention Policy
Title: Quality in Education Versus No Detention Policy
Author: Prof. Asfa M. Yasin
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3164 (online), ISSN 2348-3156 (Print)
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