State yet to frame policies for pre-primary: Principal

The Delhi high court on Monday ruled that nursery admissions would continue as scheduled as they don’t come under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009. However, managements of schools in the city said that confusion prevails over whether schools are expected to have their own policies governing nursery admissions or whether school-linked nurseries, lower kindergarten (LKG) and upper kindergarten (UKG) come under RTE in Maharashtra.

The Delhi high court’s decision came in a petition filed by an NGO against empowering unaided private schools to have their own nursery admission standards.

Saying that the judgment by the Delhi high court is on expected lines, Abeda Inamdar, vice president, Anglo Urdu Girls High School said, “The nursery and pre-primary schools were never covered under the RTE Act in the first place. So this decision does not make a difference. The crux of the issue is that there is no pre-primary education policy in place in Maharashtra. The RTE Act section 10 itself states that states have to formulate pre-primary education policies, but Maharashtra has yet to do so. There are no uniform standards for admissions of pre-primary schools in India.”

Founder director of Leapbridge Education (LE), Ketan Gala, who runs pre-schools in Pune, said, “As far as we are concerned, RTE never applied to pre-primary and nursery schools. I cannot comment on the judgment itself. Moreover, we already have anganwadis and balwadi kendras, run and funded by the government, which essentially focus on nutrition and a bit of education.”

In December 2012, confusion in schools heightened further when state director of education Shreedhar Salunke issued a directive asking all schools, except aided and minority schools, to stop the school linked LKG admission process. The decision was made applicable statewide in Maharashtra, following a meeting held by principal secretary, education, JS Saharia in connection with implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009.

State definition of “entry level” unclear
Principal of Vatsalya School, Vineeta Arora said they have received directives from the education department to implement the RTE at the entry level, but the term ‘entry level’ is not defined properly. “School-linked nurseries, LKG and UKG have no option but to implement RTE reservations at entry level, even if it does not apply till UKG, where the children are below 6 years of age. According to the RTE Act, it is actually meant for entry level, where kids are above 6 years of age. But the state government is not clear in defining the implementation of RTE in schools at entry level. The definition of entry level itself is not very specific,” she said.

As far as we are concerned, RTE never applied to pre-primary and nursery schools. I cannot comment on the judgment itself. We already have anganwadis and balwadi kendra
—Ketan Gala , founder, LE