Nursery admission age passes the HC test

The Delhi HC put its seal of approval on the Delhi Govt’s decision fixing 4 yrs as the minimum age for admission to nursery classes, and five years for Class I, reports Harish V Nair.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday put its seal of approval on the Delhi Government’s decision fixing four years as the minimum age for admission to nursery classes, and five years for Class I.

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A Division Bench of Chief Justice MK Sharma and Sanjeev Khanna asked the government to notify the rule at the earliest and implement it from 2008 academic year.

The Cabinet decision was based on the recommendations of the Ganguly Committee and the Delhi School Advisory Board on regulation of pre-primary education.

From now there can be only one year of education before Class I — which will be called pre-primary class. Any school before pre-primary will be considered out of the formal education set up.

Spelling relief for private schools that offer two years of pre-primary education, the Delhi Government told the court that they will not insist on the closure of nursery classes. But at the same time it made it clear that schools will not be allowed to treat the nursery class as a feeder for the main school. For parents, this means making their child go through the rigours of admission once again.

For Class 1, a child will have to be at least 5 years old as of March 31 of the year admission is sought in.