The Right to Education Forum on Thursday said it was unfortunate that the Union Cabinet allowed schools to detain students in the same class. The decision will affect the student’s psyche and have an impact on their self-esteem, it said.

“There is no evidence available anywhere which states that detention in the same class has improved the learning of any child,” Ambrish Rai, National Convenor of the RTE, said in a statement. “It is also important to note the profile of these children, who are generally from the marginalised sections of the society and are often, first generation learners.”

A student should not be type-cast as a failure and the school, teachers, and academic authorities should responsibility of the under-performance of the student, the statement said.

Rai said the forum had introduced the concept of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation in the RTE Act to assess a student’s performance and assist them in subjects that may be lagging behind. However, the CCE provision has not been implemented in a majority of schools in the country, the statement added.

Rai urged the Centre to think about the consequences of the detention policy on the students. “We are certain that the removal of the no-detention policy would hamper the overall goals of the RTE Act and lead to massive drop-outs, especially among the first generation learners,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Union cabinet had approved scrapping the no-detention policy in state government schools for students in Class 5 and Class 8. The student will, however, be given another chance to appear for an exam to improve their results. Currently, any student until Class 8 is automatically promoted to higher classes.