Gujarat government concedes to one-year relaxation for implementation of new admission rules for class one

Updated on: Thursday, May 02, 2013

In a relief to about 60,000 primary school students across Gujarat, the state government has conceded to the mounting pressure from parents and granted a one-year relaxation for implementation of new admission rules for class one.

Now, children who complete five years on or before August 31 will be eligible for promotion to class one. Earlier, the state government had issued an order allowing only those senior kindergarten kids who complete five years on May 31 to be promoted.

The state government declared this by filing an affidavit before Gujarat high court on Wednesday and claimed that the relaxation to kids completing five years on August 31 for admission will be limited to the academic year 2013-14 .

The state government stated that the relaxation for a year has been granted "considering peculiar circumstances" , and it will issue appropriate instruction in this regard to the director of primary education. Thus, the new rules under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2012 will impact nearly 20% kids studying in senior KG, the parents had argued.

Parents of affected children had approached the high court with complaint that the decision not to admit a child completing five years after May 31 instead of August 31 was not only arbitrary but it could spoil ayear and may have adverse effect on children's career in future . They also claimed that the education authorities were aware about the rules from the beginning, but issued notification in this regard at the last moment. This has just aggravated the problem. They demanded that the rule should be struck down.

While the hearing on such petitions filed by parents was in progress, the state government sought a day's time from the court to review its decision of implementing RTE laws from this year. Government pleader Prakash Jani submitted that the state government was concerned about children's problem and anxiety of their parents . With this, he tendered an affidavit before the high court stating that children completing five years on or before August 31 will be admitted to class one.

After the state government declared the relaxation, the bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice Pardiwala disposed of the petitions . Technically, the petitioners lost their case, but their issue has been redressed.

Gujarat government concedes to one-year relaxation for implementation of new admission rules for class one

More Education news