As many as 6,745 children have enrolled for Balvatikas introduced by the Chandigarh education department from the 2023-24 academic session as part of a three-tier structure.
While earlier government schools were enrolling children at the age of 4 as part of a two-level structure, before promoting them to Class 1 at the age of 6, they are now accepting admissions of even children aged 3 in “Balvatika” or pre-primary 3.
Overall, 15,531 students have enrolled for all three pre-primary classes – pre-nursery, nursery and balvatika – for this year’s academic session.
As per the education department officials, while many of the students in Balvatika classes this year will be promoted from nursery, many other children who had dropped out earlier will join the class before transferring to Class 1. The data will become clear after the department updates their details in the centralised system during the course of this academic session.
Director school education Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said while the academic session for Balvatika classes had already started in 108 government schools, admissions in these entry-level classes was under progress.
{{/usCountry}}Director school education Harsuhinderpal Singh Brar said while the academic session for Balvatika classes had already started in 108 government schools, admissions in these entry-level classes was under progress.
{{/usCountry}}Parents have been asked to submit applications to the cluster heads and admission will be granted to a government school and even if it’s not the first choice of the parents, the school won’t be far from them.
The Balvatika class at Government Model High School in Kishangarh was taken as the model from where the Punjab governor and UT administrator had inaugurated the classes in the other 107 government schools.
As per officials, the painting and decorating work has been finished in many schools. But in schools where a new section was to be constructed for this class, the work is still under progress.
As per Samagra Shiksha norms, the UT education department has hired around 130 early childhood care and education (ECCE) interns who will initially handle the Balvatika classes. As per officials, further appointments will also be made, if necessary, while the department is already in the process of recruiting teachers of various cadres.
With the addition of the third pre-primary class, the total enrolment in pre-primary classes in government schools has significantly increased this year. Apart from this, enrolment in pre-nursery and nursery classes has seen an increase.