If you are sending your child to pre-primary classes, you are violating the Right to Education Act as well as the Child Rights Act
If you are sending your child to pre-primary classes, you are violating the Right to Education Act as well as the Child Rights Act. How, you ask? Here’s the answer: The Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) yesterday, while hearing cases of schools not admitting children under RTE, said law says education must be provided only after the age of six and questioned the existence of pre-primary sections in schools, as there is no such provision in any legislation.
The child rights panel further asked the schools to submit a response in writing about who gave them permission to run pre-primary sections when there is no such regulation. It then asked the state education department to submit a reply stating how are they allowing admissions in pre-primary sections. Both the schools and the education department have been asked to submit their replies within three days.
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“I can impose a fine on stakeholders for indulging in an act for which there is no provision under any law. However, these questions also need to be resolved. Hence, I have asked all the parties to submit their response on the questions that have been raised,” said A N Tripathi, secretary of the commission while hearing the case.
“I am shocked that these children are below the age of six years and hence they cannot come under RTE Act because it talks about children in the age group of 6-14 years. When there is no such provision, how can children be schooled at this young age? How are these schools running? And under which law has the authority granted them permission? These things need to be looked into,” said Tripathi, while adding that he had many times send recommendations to concerned authorities about regulating pre-primary section.
Parents speak
Diksha Shah, mother of a three-year-old from Kandivali, who is trying to get her kid admitted into pre-primary section of a school, “This is very confusing as pre-primary sections have been running forever. I was also once enrolled in a pre-primary class. Schools too do not take children in from Std I and many schools do not even admit children, who went to pre-primary in any other school. In today’s competitive world, we cannot let our child be left behind.”
The difference between entry-level and pre-primary has become confusing due to the panel’s current stance. Jayant Jain, President of Forum for Fairness in Education, an NGO, said, “By raising such questions, they are just confusing parents, which will benefit schools. Government is anyway hands-in-glove with private schools.”
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