Kolkata: CM Suvendu Adhikari said he personally favoured restoring the pass-fail system in state schools, but clarified that any decision would be guided by National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the recommendations of Bengal’s syllabus committee.
The syllabus committee, which was reconstituted after BJP came to office in the state, supports reintroduction of the pass-fail system in schools and will formally take up the matter in a meeting after the festive season, sources said.
Till now, a no-detention policy till Class 8 is being followed aligning with the right to education actNEP provides for academically weak students in Classes 5 and 8 to repeat a year, but the policy was not implemented in Bengal.
Adhikari told reporters, “We have started the process of introducing NEP in Bengal. There will be a lot of changes in the education system starting next academic year. Personally, I want mobile phones to be banned in schools and the pass-fail system to return. The history of India and West Bengal should be taught alongside modern subjects.”
He, however, made it clear the govenment would abide by “the syllabus committee’s recommendations” and a decision would be taken after consulting the ministers concerned.
Syllabus committee chairperson Debashis Chatterjee said, “We have called a meeting to discuss these matters. I do feel proper screening is very important, but we need to discuss the modalities before reintroducing detention at the school level.”
Tarunkanti Naskar, member of All India Save Education Committee, said the pass-fail system needs to be reintroduced right from Class 1. “Students are struggling to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. The pass-fail system has to be restored to improve the academic standard. Both central and state govts are only issuing statements, instead of implementing the policy. We demand that RTE Act be amended to bring back the detention policy,” he said.
Partha Pratim Baidya, headmaster of Jadavpur Vidyapith, favours reintroduction of the detention policy. “I have seen how much difficulty senior students face. But by then it’s too late to bridge the learning gap. A certain level of motivation is required for students to move to the next grade. They have to learn to deal with pressure from the school level.”
