Clearing Class 5 exam will now be must for admissions to classes 6-8

Following the approval of amendment to the Right To Education (RTE) Act by the Centre in 2019, Maharashtra government in June this year, declared gazette notification on scrapping of no-detention policy under RTE Act.

While it was declared that there will be compulsory annual exams held in classes 5 and 8 which has to be cleared to move to next class, the department on Thursday issued a Government Resolution (GR) with detailed implementation plan starting from schedule for exams, subjects, syllabus, evaluation method, re-exam and passing criterion among all.

In the process, admission criteria for age-appropriate admission has also been revised.

Under RTE, schools are instructed to give age-appropriate admissions to children whenever they are joining any school. For example, if a 11-year-old child is seeking admission to school, he or she was directly given admission to Class 6, irrespective of the candidate’s earlier academic record.

As per the GR, the Class 5 annual exam will be applicable for age-appropriate admissions done in classes 6 to 8. Any student seeking age-appropriate admission in classes 6 to 8, should have either cleared the mandatory Class 5 annual exam already or the school concerned should conduct one exam for the candidate to decide if admission can be given to classes 6 to 8.

If the child fails the exam, he or she will be given admission in Class 5.

For all students in classes 5 and 8 in schools across Maharashtra, these mandatory annual exams will be held in April second week.

If students fail to clear the exams, they will undergo remedial teaching during summer and a re-exam will be held in June.

This will be in the first week of June, across Maharashtra, except Vidharbha where it will be held in the second week of June.

Result of the re-exam has to be declared by the school minimum of three days before the next academic year begins.

As per the GR, the annual exam for classes 5 and 8 will be based on the syllabus of the second term of the respective academic years.

For the class 5 examination, the subjects will include – three languages, Mathematics and Science. Whereas for class 8 annual examination, social science will be added to this list.

For class 5, the exam will be for 50 marks including 10 marks for oral exam or practicals and minimum of 18 marks (35 percent) per subject are required to pass the exam.

For class 8, the annual examination will be of 60 marks including 10 marks for oral exam or practicals and students have to score a minimum 21 marks per subject to clear it.