The mushrooming of playschools at every nook and corner is not a new trend, an easy money making business has flourished rapidly in the Capital City. Moreover, besides the legal provisions, lack of official record is one prime hurdles in closing down all the cradles being run by flouting the set norms.
After the recent nod of the State Cabinet on regulating a framework for playschools operation that are beyond the purview of Right to Education (RTE) norms at present, Ranchi DC, Manoj Kumar said that until they will not get the framed regulations covering all the aspects of play school functioning within municipal periphery, no stringent action was possible against the play school managements.
“At present, we cannot take any action considering the fact that the administration is yet to receive the defined regulations for the playschools operation. As soon as, we receive the instructions action will be taken against all such schools infringing the safety of kids at these schools,” said Ranchi DC Manoj Kumar.
Violating various safety norms, kindergarten schools does not function under any defined rules and often creates hurdle for government officials in keeping a tab on the administration and operation of these schools that enrolls toddlers in quite a number.
Though the children below the age of six are beyond the scope of RTE norms yet the act does address early childhood care in Section 11 of the Act by stating that the government may make necessary arrangement for providing pre-school education or for running playschools.
Interestingly, the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) that is responsible for registering and issuing license to the stakeholders of playschools has kept no official record of playschools functioning in the State Capital. According to RMC officials, their responsibility ends after issuing the commercial licenses to the owners and monitoring of playschools does not fall upon them.
Notably, even after the intervention of Jharkhand High Court (HC) to properly monitor the functioning of play schools, no stringent initiatives have been ever taken to ensure playschools functioning. Even the district administration does not receive any formal applications from the people who intend to open a playschool describing the place, ambiance, budget, safety norms, staffs and administration, curriculum etc of the play schools.
Recently, the State cabinet had passed a regulation ensuring that all playschools must have the provision of child friendly toilets, pantry, CCTV cameras, fire safety, first aid. Besides keeping the record of children, a data-base of all staffs both teaching and non-teaching personnel must be kept.
While admitting a kid, the school administration has to ensure the age of all kids, he/she must be at least 3 year old during the time of admission.
