Times of India: Ahmedabad: Monday, July 02, 2018.
Every year,
parents queue up outside playschools and daycare centres to get their two- to
six-year olds admitted and pay a bomb for these early childhood care centres,
but they are hardly aware there exists separate set of guidelines to regulate
their fees and even inspect safety and sanitation standards.
For the last
one year, the Gujarat government is dragging its feet while implementing the
“Regulatory guidelines for private playschools” recommended by the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The guidelines are, for the
time being, in the concurrent list leaving the choice with the state to
implement them.
The
guidelines state that fees charged by playschools must be regulated by the
government. It also says that the school should not collect capitation fee at
the time of admission, or subject the child or his or her parents or guardians
to any screening procedure.
These
regulations are also about recognising only those playschools and nurseries
that have adequate infrastructure, staff, teaching-learning aids, library, play
material, games, sports equipment, health and records of children.
In an RTI reply
to Kalupur resident Pankaj Bhatt, the women and child welfare department
claimed that there is hardly any playschool in the state that has come forward
for registration.
“States like
Himachal Pradesh, Union territories like Chandigarh have already begun
implementing the guidelines. My question is how just the fee being regulated by
fee regulatory committee for nurseries, while the state looks the other way
when it comes to safety and sanitation standards at these playschools,” asks
Bhatt.
He adds, “One
aspect that needs mention here is that in Gujarat most parents admit their
children to playschools at age 2 years instead of 3 years,” says Bhatt.