HC reserves verdict on nursery admission row

Updated on: Thursday, January 19, 2012

The private schools told the Delhi High Court that the Right to Education(RTE) Act allows schools to admit children below four years in age to pre-school (nursery) classes which is part of the formal education system.

Appearing for the schools before a pision bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, counsel Sobha said that as per the Act, nursery classes could be treated as entry level the pre-schools should not be segregated from the formal education system.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Social Jurists, an NGO, challenging the government's December 16, 2012, order allowing schools to admit children in nursery classes at the age of three instead of four which was allegedly violative of the Delhi Education Act.

Sobha countered the petitioner's contentions that pre-schools should not be treated as entry point and it should not act as feeder for pre-primary schools.

She also argued the Ashok Ganguly Committee recommendations that the admission of children of age four and above in nursery and pre-schools should be separated from formal schooling would not not be applicable to private schools after the RTE Act came into force.

The bench reserved its verdict after hearing arguments of the petitioner NGO, Delhi government and city's private schools on the PIL.

Earlier, the NGO's counsel Ashok Aggarwal had argued that keeping the children's overall development in mind, the Ganguly Committee had recommended four years as the admission age of children to pre-school classes and it was endorsed by this court in 2007.

Aggarwal said even the Delhi Education Act prescribed the same age criteria but under the garb of RTE Act 2009, the government has allowed private schools to give admission to children in the school at the age of three.

Delhi government had told the bench that the RTE Act is a central law that supersedes the Delhi Education Act.

Meanwhile, the bench clarified that the single judge's recent order, which had reportedly stayed the government's nursery admission norms, was to the extent of the clause pertaining to the admission of children under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in the schools but not the whole notification.

The single judge had stayed the government notification issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE) in an interim order, while hearing a petition by schools challenging the DoE order asking schools to reserve 25 per cent seats under the EWS category.

HC reserves verdict on nursery admission row

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