HC judgment on age limit in nursery today

The Delhi high court will on Friday pronounce its crucial judgment on a PIL seeking banning private schools from admitting children below four years of age in nursery classes.

The PIL by NGO Social Jurist also urged the court to fix uniform age pattern for nursery and KG classes in all schools. The court had reserved its order on January 19 after hearing the petitioner, schools and the government.

The NGO accused the government of not enforcing the court's September 2007 order, which had asked it to implement Ashok Ganguly Committee's recommendations that favoured fixing of four years as the minimum age for admission in pre-primary classes and disfavoured considering nursery as part of formal schooling.

"KG should be considered as entry level while most schools treat nursery as an official start to schooling, leaving little scope for fresh admissions in KG," Agarwal submitted. He also demanded that nursery class should not be considered as "feeder for KG class".

During the hearing, the court asked the government to frame guidelines for admission to pre-primary classes that will be applicable to all schools in the Capital.