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The Supreme Court has rejected parent’s petitions challenging the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS)’s decision to raise the minimum age for admissions to Class 1 from 5 to 6 years from 2022-2023 academic year.
The Indian Express explains why the admission criterion was changed and the reason behind the parents’ petition challenging it.
Why did KVS raise the age of admission for Class 1?
The new National Education Policy (NEP) introduced in 2020 restructured school education to bring three years of early childhood (ages 3 to 5 years) within formal schooling. It advocates moving away from the 10+2 structure to the 5+3+3+4 format corresponding to ages 3-8, 8-11, 11-14, and 14-18 years respectively. In other words, the new system will have 12 years of schooling along with three years of pre-school or preparatory school (or Anganwadi).
The KVS is the autonomous body under the Union Education Ministry that runs the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) or Central Schools. It has justified raising the age of admission from 5 years to 6 years from Class 1 across KVs on the ground that it is trying to align itself with the new NEP, which defines the corresponding age group for each stage of formal schooling. As per the NEP, a six-year-old child should ideally be in Class 1.
Moreover, the KVS has also stated that as many as 21 states have already adopted the age of 6 for admission to Class 1. Since KVs are meant for children of transferable central government employees, aligning itself with the prevalent national trend makes sense, it argued.
Why was the change in age criterion challenged in court?
A group of parents who filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court claimed that the decision to change the age eligibility criteria was sudden as the admission guidelines were updated just four days before the admission process started on February 28.
They further argued that the change in age criteria from five to six years violates the right of their children to education guaranteed under Articles 14, 21, and 21-A of the Constitution as well as under the provisions of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, and Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
Why did the Delhi High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court rule in favour of KVS?
On April 11, Justice Rekha Palli of the Delhi High Court dismissed the petitions filed by the parents observing that the decision regarding the KV admission age criterion was not sudden as it aligns with the new NEP, and that policy hasn’t been challenged legally.
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Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, who was representing the Union government and KVS, informed the high court that petitioners had no “vested right” to seek admission this year since their children (currently 5 years old) would be eligible for admission next year.
A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh, upheld the Delhi High Court’s decision allowing KVS to raise the minimum age criterion for admission to Class 1. “We are informed that the other petitioners preferred a Letter Patent Appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court, and we may say, rightly so, and that appeal has also been dismissed on 13.04.2022. We have also gone through the order of the learned Single Judge assailed before us and are in full agreement with the view taken and give our imprimatur to the same. The Special Leave Petition is accordingly, dismissed,” said the bench.
