State enforces exams, fails to up education

Mumbai: To remove ‘why study, when there is no fear or failing’, and ‘why teach, when the student needs to be promoted anyway’ from both students and teachers respectively, the state education department has come up with various kind of examinations like Summative and Baseline exams. However, the lack of accountability and seriousness on their part is showing how the idea is failing.

The department had come with these exams in regards to the ‘no detention’ policy, which is a clause in the Right to Education Act under sections 16 and 30 (1) in the year 2010 that says that till Class 8, no child can be held back or expelled from school and should be compulsorily ‘promoted’.

“The students who come to our schools after Class 8 from civic schools can’t even write their name properly and do not know anything about the subject. These student must have been promoted using the ‘push and pass’ policy,” said Latha Venkat, HM, Sarvodya Balika School, Malad. According to her, it becomes difficult for the teachers to complete the syllabus of Classes 1 to 8 in the two years of Classes 9 and 10.

These examinations conducted by the Maharas-htra State Council of Education, Research and Training, are considered  baseless by the schools as they don’t have marking — pass or fail, they just help the schools in categorising the students. After this, the weaker students are given extra attention than the ones who score better. However, constant leaks of these papers, irregularity and no seriousness have led to their failure.