State Govt holds meet to restructure pre-schools

Deputy director (primary education) D M Patil,feels that if the de-linking process is initiated then parents will make informed choices as they will question whether they need to admit their children in pre-schools. Madhuri Deshpande,who runs Ankur Vidyamandir and was part of the Ram Joshi Committee,said that a separate mechanism will be needed to monitor pre-schools in the state,if the Government decides to regularise them.

Another suggestion made at the meeting was about restructuring fees so that it follows the primary school fee-formula. Government norms prescribe that fees be decided after dividing the total expenditure by number of students and adding a 15 per cent surplus to this figure.

The maximum duration a child can spend away from home was also debated at the meeting. Anupama Desai,from SNDT Women’s College who runs a pre-school,says that a child between three and six years of age should attend pre-school for a maximum of three hours.

While welcoming the Government’s initiative in organising this meeting,Umesh Deshmukh of Lokmanya Tarun Kreeda Sanskritik Mandal,Jamkhed (Ahmednagar),spoke about the importance of such meetings in providing opportunities to those running balwadis in rural areas to voice their opinions.

The meeting was convened by Dilip Gogate,former education director,G K Mhamane,deputy director,Pune region,D M Patil,deputy director (primary education),Prakash Parab,Zilla Parishad education officer and Sudhakar Tambe,PMC education officer.

The state Government plans to hold similar meetings at eight divisional places viz. Aurangabad,Nasik,Latur,Kolhapur,Amravati,Pune,Mumbai and Nagpur till May 15,after which the recommendations will be reviewed by the state.

A core committee of Ramesh Panse,educationist and founder trustee of Gram Mangal,Madhuri Deshpande,Anupama Desai and Vidya Waje from Ahmednagar,and Sanjay Gandhi from Solapur will finalise the recommendations to be sent to the state Government on Tuesday.