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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Near-consensus on no-fail policy by Alexandre Moniz Barbosa

Near-consensus on no-fail policy by Alexandre Moniz Barbosa

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published Published on May 23, 2011   modified Modified on May 23, 2011
Educationists are questioning the retrospective nature of the no-fail policy that was made applicable to schools in Goa earlier this month through a circular, days after the results of the last academic year had been declared.

While there appears to be a near consensus that the policy will be beneficial, the haste with which the directorate of education (DoE) is implementing this, is leading to various questions being raised.

"It would be rather badly implemented. The system needs to change before you bring changes like these. There should have been some sort of preparation to tell the teachers they are moving from a marks grading system to another. That was not done," says educationist and Padma award winner Romualdo D'Souza.

The education department on May 6, 2011 issued a circular to schools in the state making it mandatory to implement the no-fail policy under the Right to Education Act (RTE) with effect from the academic year 2010-11. This would mean that students who have already been detained would, under this circular, be promoted. This led to various protests from school managements and headmasters.

"The circular should have come earlier. Issuing the circular after the final results is a great blunder on the part of the government. Even the minister insists that it should be done. Is it because somebody has a child who stands to benefit by this policy?" asks former education director B da Cruz.

A policy of this sort would mean a dramatic shift in education principles in the state. "The manner of teaching has to change. It should be more of a learning process than a teaching process," says D'Souza.

Explaining that a no-fail policy does not mean that exams will be cancelled, educationists say this calls for continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of students as per the provisions in the Act. Headmasters on Saturday decided not to implement the DoE no-fail policy, citing that the system of CCE should have been in place before the policy could be implemented.

Reasoning that the government had enough time to implement the RTE and that the tangle is because they didn't anticipate the effects, former GBSHSE chairman and Padma award winner Suresh Amonkar says, "This means that there has to be continuous comprehensive evaluation of different aspects of a child's growth - academic, curricular, co-curricular, sports. Teachers will have to evaluate the children at regular intervals and see that they rise to the minimum level of competence. They can rise higher, but no child should go below that level."

With neither proper guidelines, nor such a system in place, headmasters are even reluctant to begin the system in the coming academic year.

There are also concerns that this will lead to other problems. Da Cruz says, "Administratively it is a great blunder and bothersome. This, when done retrospectively becomes a problem for schools and parents. If some child has been admitted in some other school, parents will now have to go back to the old school and get new report cards and then return to the new school. All this cannot be done during the holidays." Report cards have to be signed by headmasters, and many could be away on holiday.

Educationists are, however, in agreement that this is a good thing to happen. "After 60 years we are seeing the directive principles of the Constitution being fulfilled. It is now the responsibility of the teachers to orient themselves towards fulfilling these," says Amonkar.

The Times of India, 23 May, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Near-consensus-on-no-fail-policy/articleshow/8518340.cms


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