Govt action lacking, petition asks HC to frame nursery admission guidelines

As the Delhi High Court hears contentions whether nursery (pre-school) classes could be feeder for admission in KG (pre-primary), the petitioner has said there is no need to do away with nursery classes, but the admission required regulation from Delhi government.

Blaming the government for not framing guidelines for nursery admission, advocate Ashok Agarwal, appearing for the petitioner NGO Social Jurist, requested the court to lay down guidelines by exercising its power.

“The government had assured the court in a previous petition that they will be framing the guidelines by the beginning of the 2008-09 session. They, however, have not done so. Hence, this court must exercise its powers and frame guidelines in the interests of the children and also parents, who are compelled to admit their wards in nursery for their subsequent promotion to KG,” Agarwal submitted before a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw.

The counsel also hit out at the government’s submission that RTE Act enabled the Directorate of Education to allow children above the age of three years to be prepared for the elementary education.

“This argument is completely misleading. What the RTE Act lay down, was already there in the Constitution and also under the Delhi Education Rules. Hence, the government cannot now say that the situation has changed after notification of the RTE Act,” said Agarwal.

The court will hear government’s arguments on whether nursery could be treated as the entry point to formal schooling on Wednesday.

Earlier, defending its decision on December 16 order, which allowed schools to admit children above the age of three years in nursery, government’s affidavit has stated that provisions of the RTE Act “show there is a need of pre-school education for children below six years of age” and that the 2009-legislation “nowhere bars schools from running pre-school classes”.

The NGO’s petition, however, has claimed that the current admission process, which permits nursery admission of children below four years of age in the city schools, was in breach of the Ganguly Committee recommendations, duly approved by the government and accepted by the court in 2007.