Given that a large number of students drop out after failing in Class VI, the DoE has launched two new interventions. One, students from Classes I to VII are promoted up until Class VIII (earlier only students from Classes I to III followed a no-detention policy). And, two, introduce a grading system up until Class VIII, instead of pass and fail terminology, to motivate students who perform poorly in exams.

“We have seen that students who fail in exams often drop out, or else become extremely unmotivated,” Education minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said. “By retaining students until Class VIII, they are more likely to stay on for the full length of schooling.”

Principals across government schools in Delhi were informed about the new directive last week.

Neelam Sachdeva, vice-principal of Government Sarvodaya School in G-P Block, Pitampura, found it on the Internet. She said: “At least children will learn something. Students will stay in school at least until Class VIII.”

Many activists working in the field of education also welcomed the move but also voiced concerns about the effect of the directive on the quality of education. Shailendra Sharma, programme director for the Delhi branch of Pratham, an NGO focusing on education, said, “It’s a good idea but schools must see that children still learn. More than ever the onus of ensuring that a child learns is on the teacher.”

One of the safeguards taken by DoE to ensure that students are in fact learning after their automatic promotion is to mark extra classes for subjects where they have scored poorly.

Ashok Agarwal, an advocate working on education-related issues, said though the new policy aims to encourage children, “it’s important to note that MCD schools already have a no-detention policy, but still many parents are unhappy with promotion based on attendance where minimum teaching qualities are not met.

“Therefore teachers must have an incentive to teach.”