The Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court Tuesday that the cut-off date for the calculation of age of a child seeking admission to a school should be March 31 of the year of admission. A child should have completed four years on or before March 31 of the year of admission to be eligible for admission to pre-primary, or nursery, it added.
'A child should have completed a minimum of five years on or before March 31 of the year of admission to be considered eligible for gaining admission to Class 1,' the affidavit said.
The Delhi government said its department of education will establish a monitoring mechanism in each district to ensure that all recommendations were effectively implemented.
'While one-year class of early childhood education would be offered by all recognised schools immediately prior to Class 1, the schools which have infrastructural facilities may be allowed to open pre-school classes for children below the age of four years,' the government said.
'However, these pre-school classes will not be part of the main school nor shall these be treated as feeder school to pre-primary class of the school,' the government said.
The government said that the children in pre-school should be from the immediate neighbourhood. 'There should be no school bag for carrying any prescribed books in all such pre-school classes,' the affidavit said.
The court was hearing a petition filed by parents and rights group Social Jurist's lawyer Ashok Agarwal, who contended that the guidelines issued by the Delhi government Dec 15, 2010 and by the central government Nov 11, 2010 were contrary to the right to education law and violated the fundamental rights of a child.
The government cannot violate its own provisions and formulate another set of rules to favour some people for commercial benefits, Agarwal added.
