Panel to regulate nurseries yet to meet

The state government had planned to regulate the pre-primary fees from the next academic year. But it has failed to keep its promise to set up a fee regulatory committee even this year. As a result,parents seeking admissions in pre-schools may not find respite from the arbitrary admission process and exorbitant fee structure.

Jayant Jain,president of Forum for Fairness in Education and one of the members of the Bansal committee,said,“We have already missed the deadline to submit the report on formation of regulatory body for pre-primary schools. According to the GR,the committee was supposed to submit the report a month from its formation. But neither my fellow committee members,nor the state government are concerned about it.”

The government had formed the Ram Joshi committee in 1995 to recommend steps for regularising fee structures and admission process of pre-schools,but very few schools follow the recommendations and regulations formulated. In 1996,the ‘Maharashtra pre-school centres (Regulation of Admission) Act was passed,stipulating compulsory registration of schools,priority admission for neighbourhood children,no interview or written test of the child or its parent and prohibiting prescribing of book or booklets for informal education. However,the Act was later repealed due to strong opposition from school managements. Since then there has been no body regulating or monitoring the pre-primary education.

“We filed three court cases,two in the High Court and the other in the supreme court. One of these cases has been pending in the High Court since 1996. The other two were disposed,as the court said it is the government’s duty to form regulations in this matter,”Jain said.

Currently,there is no regulation on fees of pre-primary,play-school or nursery,often the only entry point to reputed schools. Parents have no choice but to agree with the terms laid down by the schools.