The Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All — an association of about 460 private schools — made a mention of the matter before the Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan. The Bench accepted their plea.
The Forum claims to be aggrieved by an earlier order of the Delhi High Court passed on November 14, dismissing a plea for allowing two years of pre-primary schooling. The schools said as per Article 21-A of the Constitution, the minimum age for Class I should be six years - allowing pre-primary schooling of two years for children.
The High Court had said the Delhi government had taken a decision to fix the age limit for nursery admission on the recommendation of the Ashok Ganguly Committee report and in compliance with the Delhi School Education Act. Ganguly, Chairman of CBSE, had recommended that for taking admission to Class I, the age of a child should be five years. The High Court had asked the schools to approach the government if they had any grievance. The NGO, Social Jurist had opposed the petitions filed by the school forum.