From rxpgnews.com
Nursery admission issue referred to Ganguly committee
By IANS,
Mar 7, 2007 - 8:35:04 PM
New Delhi, March 7 - Declining to consider a Delhi government's plea to change the cut-off age for nursery admissions from three years to three-and-a-half years, the Delhi High Court Wednesday referred the matter to Ashok Ganguly committee, set up to look into the aspect of admission procedures for nursery classes.
The division bench of Chief Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna referred the matter to the committee, headed by the former Central Board of Secondary Education chairman Ashok Ganguly, directing him to examine the issue of appropriate age of admission to nursery classes and submit his report to the court by March 31.
The bench asked the committee to have a discussion with the education department of the Delhi government, before finalising issue.
The bench also refused to modify its January 17 order specifying that a child should be three years of age for admissions to nursery classes and five years for Class I as per the Delhi Education Act.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Delhi government seeking modification of the order.
On February 28, the high court had asked the Delhi government to reduce the two-year nursery period for children seeking admission to schools to one year, saying only four-year-old children should be admitted in Class 1.
Refusing to raise the cut-off age to three and half years to nursery education, the bench observed, 'There is no need to admit a three-year-old child in the school. Why do you need nursery and kindergarten classes? One year at nursery level would be sufficient to prepare a child for admission in class 1.'
The Delhi School Education Act says a child should be at least five years old as on Sept 30 of a calendar year, for admission to any formal school, said the bench.
Senior counsel K.T.S. Tulsi, appearing for the state government, had submitted that during a meeting chaired by Delhi Education Minister Arvind Singh Lovely it was decided that a three-year-old child was not psychologically prepared to go to a school.
The child does not become physically and psychologically fit to cope with the rigours of studies, said Tulsi, quoting the minutes of the meeting.
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