Haryana schools want clarity on age criteria

Nitish Sharma
Tribune News Service
Ambala, January 29

The Federation of Private Schools Welfare Association, Haryana, has requested the Additional Chief Secretary, School Education, PK Das, to provide clear guidelines regarding the age criteria for admission of children in schools and weight of school bags.

Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the association, said “The Women and Child Development Department has formulated certain rules for pre-primary education which were forwarded to the private schools by the Education Department. As per the policy, schools wouldn’t admit any child below 3 years and that pre-primary education would be from the age group of 3-6 years. There is a sense of confusion among the private school operators.”

“The RTE also provides for free and compulsory education for children between the age group of 6 and 14 years and for Classes I to VIII, which also implies that a child to be admitted to first standard shouldn’t be less than 6 years,” he said, and added that, “But the earlier policy of the Education Department provides that pre-primary education should be of two-year duration and a child to be admitted to first standard shouldn’t be less than 5 years. It has come to our notice that children of 4 years of age have been given admission in first class in government schools and in case, these children get admission in private schools through RTE then they may face issues.”

Kulbhushan said “A memorandum has been submitted to the Additional Chief Secretary and he has asked the Director, Elementary Education, and other officials to issue clear directions.” The association has also demanded that the schools recognised by the Haryana Government should be issued NOC for joining any board without imposing any further conditions.