By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday directed the Delhi government to take a decision within six weeks about reducing the two-year nursery period for children seeking admission to schools to one year, following a suggestion made by a committee.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sharma directed the state government to take a conscious and balanced decision at the earliest and submit a report in an affidavit.
The government counsel submitted that the state government had appointed an advisory board comprising experts to study the committee's report.
While appreciating the report of the Ganguly Committee headed by CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) chairman Ashok Ganguly, the court said, "The entire nation is looking forward to the decision. The final outcome would have an impact all over the nation."
On March 7, the high court had referred the issue of reducing the entry age of a child to nursery class to the Ganguly Committee for its recommendations.
On March 1, the Delhi government had refused to accept the proposal to reduce the two-year nursery period to one year.
However, an advocate appearing for the schools submitted that the institutes in the capital did not agree to the suggestion of reducing the preparatory stage education by a year.
"There is no need to admit a three-year-old child in the school. Why do you need nursery and kindergarten classes? One year at nursery level would be sufficient to prepare a child for admission to Class 1," the bench said while refusing to increase the age of children to three and half years for admission to nursery classes.
The Delhi School Education Act says a child should be at least five years old as on Sep 30 of a calendar year for admission to any formal school, said the bench.