HC told separate minimum ages will be maintained for pre-school, pre-primary classes; contempt plea dismissed
The minimum age for nursery admissions in the Capital was retained at three-plus years, as the Delhi High Court on Tuesday threw out a challenge to the admission procedures being followed by city's private schools. The court has refused to intervene in the process, on the Delhi government's assurance that they were complying with its orders regarding setting separate minimum ages for admissions to the nursery and pre-primary classes.
A contempt petition, which alleged that the authorities had failed to comply with its earlier order fixing four-plus as the entry age of a child in pre-primary classes, was dismissed. Justice G S Sistani accepted the government's stand that a child's admission in pre-school (nursery classes) will not automatically grant him/her the eligibility to continue on to pre-primary classes, for which the age has been fixed by the court at four years on or before March 31 of the year of admission. The child will have to separately meet all criteria for admission to the pre-primary classes even if he/ she has studied in the nursery classes of the same school, the government clarified.
The government further stated in its affidavit that in all Delhi schools, pre-primary education would be of a uniform one year-duration. It would be the class immediately prior to Class I and would be known as pre-primary, the affidavit added.
"The DoE will establish a monitoring mechanism in each district to ensure that all recommendations are effectively implemented and that children of pre-school stage should not get preference over other children for admission in pre-primary classes," it stated. The court expressed its satisfaction in the matter and dismissed the plea.
In its September 2007 order, the High Court had directed the Delhi government to incorporate recommendations provided by the Ganguly Committee and fix minimum ages for admission in pre-school and pre-primary classes.
"While one-year classes of early childhood education would be offered by all recognised schools immediately prior to Class I, schools which have infrastructural facilities may be allowed to open pre-school classes for children below the age of four years. However, these pre-school classes will not be part of the main school, nor shall these be treated as (a) feeder school for the pre-primary classes of the school. Children in pre-school should be from the immediate neighbourhood. There should be no school bag for carrying any prescribed books for all such pre-school classes," the High Court had noted then, taking on record the government's stand.
NGO Social Jurist had accused the government of contempt of court, claiming the schools were still admitting children aged below four years for admission in pre-primary classes.
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