The minimum age of children in the city for admission to pre-primary will be 4+ and for Class 1 it will be 5+ as the government has accepted recommendations of the Ganguly Committee report, the Delhi high court was informed on Wednesday.
“The Cabinet in its meeting dated September 3, 2007 considered the recommendations of the Ganguly Committee and accepted and approved that the minimum age for admission in pre-primary and class one will be 4+ and 5+ respectively,” said Shashi Kaushal, additional director in the directorate of education (doe), in an affidavit.
The guidelines for the admission in pre-school can be worked out after “detailed discussions with experts and stakeholders while keeping in view the provisions of the Right to Education Act,” the directorate of education said.
“The cut-off date for determining the age was fixed March 31 of the year in which admission is sought. Schools which have infrastructural facilities were allowed to open pre-school classes for children below age of four years. However, the pre-school classes shall not be part of the main school nor shall be treated as feeder classes to the pre-primary class. The children in pre-school should be from immediate neighbourhood,” the DoE affidavit said.
The affidavit also said that in pursuance of the recommendations of the Ganguly Committee, the DoE has already opened pre-primary classes in 331 out of 382 Sarvodaya Schools and in the remaining, pre-primary classes will be opened in a phased manner after making provisions for infrastructure.
A high court bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri has fixed December 21 for the final hearing on a PIL on the admission of toddlers.
