The Delhi high court on Tuesday directed the Centre to consider amending the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act to include in its purview admissions to nursery classes.
Holding that the RTE Act is applicable only to children in the age group of 6-14 years, the high court said if the issue of nursery admissions is not included in the legislation, then “it would render the law meaningless”.
A bench of Chief Justice D. Murugesan and Justice V.K. Jain also upheld the validity of two government notifications giving powers to unaided private schools to formulate their own criteria for the nursery admission process. The bench allowed the Centre’s plea that the RTE Act is applicable to a child between the ages of 6 and 14 and that the states were free to formulate policies to govern pre-school (nursery) admission.
The bench, however, said schools cannot be allowed to be run as “teaching shops” as it would be “detrimental to equal opportunity to children”. Making it clear that the ongoing process of nursery admissions would remain unaffected, the court clarified that the RTE Act would deal with 25 per cent reservation for toddlers of economically weaker sections (EWS) in admissions to “pre-elementary” classes, including nursery.
“Though we have held that Right to Education Act is not applicable to nursery schools, in our opinion there cannot be any different yardstick to be adopted for education to children up to the age of 14 years irrespective of the fact that it applies to only elementary education. It is the right time for the government to consider the applicability of Right to Education Act to the nursery classes as well, as in many of the states admissions are made right from the nursery classes and the children so admitted are automatically allowed to continue from Class 1,” the Delhi high court bench said.