The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for examining whether nursery admissions could also be brought under the ambit of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
With the RTE currently applicable to admissions from Class I onwards, NGO Social Jurist sought extension of the Act to pre-elementary and pre-school level relating to nursery admissions. After the Delhi High Court turned down this demand on February 19 this year, the NGO petitioner approached the apex court to suggest that the High Court was wrong to restrict the applicability of the Act to the age group of 6-14 years.
Dealing with the challenge, a bench of Justices Hl Dattu and Dipak Misra issued notices to the Union Human Resources Development Ministry as well as the Delhi Government. Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who represented the NGO, stated that while admitting children to private unaided schools at the age of over three years, screening test is conducted violating the purpose of the Act. Moreover, he wondered how 25 per cent seats in nursery admissions would be reserved for students from disadvantaged groups while the remaining 75 per cent would be subject to test and interview.
The Supreme Court had upheld the applicability of the Act to 75 per cent of admissions made by unaided private schools, while admitting students of 6 to 14 years. Section 13 of the Act required schools to conduct admissions in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner, which meant no screening test or interview.
The petitioner argued, “Section 13 of the Act was formulated in the context of rampant screening practices being adopted by the private unaided schools in nursery admissions which had resulted in a comprehensive round of litigation in the High Court. It was to correct this that the said provision was incorporated,” the petition said.
But the High Court, while dismissing the petition, noted that the Supreme Court was yet to examine the constitutional validity of the Act at the nursery or pre-school stage. It, however, asked the Centre to consider amending the Act to include nursery education as well, saying that the schools could not be allowed to run as “teaching shops” as it would be "detrimental to equal opportunity to children".