Panaji: Academicians in Goa have voiced their concern over the education department`s arbitrary decision to implement a part of Right to Education (RTE) Act
2009 in the state which asks schools for mass promotion of students from first to eighth standard.
Three major bodies -- Goa Headmasters Association (GHA), Goa School Managements Association (GSMA) and Nationalist Educational Institutions Management Association (NEIMA), have said that the circular needs to be withdrawn as it has led to chaos in the educational institutions.
NEIMA chairman Dnyaneshwar Pednekar said implementation of the circular without continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of the students is highly objectionable.
He commented that from the circular it appears that government might have been `sleeping` from September 2009 to April 2011. RTE Act was circulated to the states in September 2009 asking the governments to frame proper rules and
guidelines.
Two years later, Goa government in its circular in April, 2011 asked all the educational institutions not to detain students from standard first to eighth.
The circular was issued when schools had finished their results and refused to promote several hundred students due to their poor performance in the examination.
Goa registers 40 percent drop out rate till eighth standard in various schools.
Official figures reveal that the drop out increases after the eighth standard due to board examinations in the tenth.
GHA has already resolved in its General Body meeting on Sunday (May 15) that the circular is not acceptable for the schools.
PTI
