Government to regulate pre-primary schools

Mumbai: The Women and Child Welfare department (WCD) has decided to conduct meetings with different sections of the society to discuss the Pre-Primary School Act, aimed at regulating admissions and fees in play schools, kindergartens and creches. According to sources from the school education department, the meetings that were supposed to start in the month of December have, so far, been held back due to technical difficulties and could be held in January.  The first meeting was supposed to take place on December 22 but was later postponed to December 28.  Since the officials concerned were unavailable, it was not held on Wednesday either.

Sainath Durge, an activist from the Yuva Sena, said that following an incident of assault on a 10-month-old girl in a Thane day-care centre in November, they had approached the WCD and the state education department, demanding to know what action was being taken to curb such incidents. “The officials had assured us that the government was mulling over proposing regulations for the pre-primary schools in the state and it would be holding a stake holders’ meeting to get their views on the same. The first meeting was supposed to take place on December 22 but was later postponed to December 28, but was not held yet again as the officials were busy elsewhere,” said Mr Durge.

When asked about the policy, Nand Kumar, principal secretary, school education, said that the sector was unregulated and hence a policy was being worked out to bring play schools and daycares under the government’s purview.

Pankaja Munde, minister for WCD, had earlier confirmed the development and said that rules were being framed to get the playschools and day-care centres to register themselves as well as its staff with the local police. She had added that the state would also be framing eligibility criteria for employees at the centres.