'Implementation of detention system soon'

"I am hopeful that the Bill regarding detention-no detention will be passed in Parliament in July and will be readied by the month of August. From March 2019 onwards, the states who are willing to introduce detention can do it in Class V and VIII," Javadekar said at a press conference on Saturday.

He attributed the delay in the passing of the Bill to the Congress and said: "The last session was washed out because of the Congress, otherwise it could have been passed in the Budget session itself."

According to the minister, the Centre has allowed the states to exercise their discretion on whether they should allow detention or continue with no detention policy. "25 states including Bengal want detention. The others do not want, I respect their freedom," he maintained. Responding to a poser on reducing the burden of bags for students, the minister said the NCERT syllabus which is so crammed will be soon reduced by half. "A student's brain is not a data bank. It should be able to analyse, comprehend and communicate. We have received suggestions from 37,000 teachers class wise, subject wise and lesson wise. The process of framing a system of reducing the burden of the syllabus which will bring down the load of school bags is on. Some of it will be reduced in 2019 and some again in 2020," he said.

He further added that the ministry is focusing on learning with fun to reduce the pressure of studies. "We will be giving a grant of Rs 20,000 to each government school across the country for libraries and Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 grant to every school for building up sports infrastructure," Javadekar said.

He maintained that the National Testing Agency will be soon getting a new chairman and it will start taking examinations like Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) and NEET right from the 2019 academic year.