Don’t disturb, please

New Delhi, March 31: The committee studying reforms in nursery admissions has recommended scrapping nursery altogether, reducing the number of school years Delhi children go through by one.

If the recommendation, part of a comprehensive set submitted to the Delhi government today, is accepted, schoolchildren in the capital will be eligible to start school at age four, instead of three and a half.

“Currently, students entering school go through nursery and kindergarten before entering Class I. We have recommended that the number of years before Class I be reduced to one year,” a senior academician on the committee said.

The committee has, however, recommended that nursery be scrapped only from the next academic year to facilitate matters for schools that have already conducted admissions for this year.

“It should not be seen as compressing the two years prior to Class 1 into one year. Instead, we are saying parents can send their child to a preparatory school before entering into schools that offer primary and higher education,” the committee member said.

The committee, headed by CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly, was set up after two sets of parents filed public interest litigations before Delhi High Court.

Parents of young children had asked the court to raise the age for admission to nursery from three and a half — as is stated by the Delhi Schools Education Act — to four.

“That is something which was the basic principle, around which the HC asked us to try and evolve a mechanism that would satisfy the other group of litigants as well,” the committee member said.

The other group of litigants, parents of older schoolchildren, had asked the court to intervene and ensure children finished schooling while they were still minors — under 18.

In the current scenario, children entering Class XII are at least seventeen and a half. Therefore, most children turn 18 while still in school, the petition said.

This made them eligible for driving licences, spawning a culture among richer children of flaunting flashy cars, the petitioners argued.

Earlier, the committee had recommended reforms such as a 100-point system for eligibility of students to reduce stress during the admission process.

Following this, direct interviews with parents at the time of nursery admissions were banned by the high court. But informal “talks” between school authorities and parents are allowed.

The 100-point system, developed to encourage the concept of neighbourhood schooling, is weighted in favour of children living close to a school and aims at helping siblings study in the same school.