Child panel’s rules a must for Gurugram playschools from April

GURUGRAM: The district women and child development department will start regularising playschools for the first time in the city from April. The department plans to carry out checks to ensure all playschools meet the guidelines set by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (

NCPCR

), as there is no such state policy. Till now, none of the 400-odd play schools in the city have been registered with the department.


Without the department’s approval, no

playschool

will be able to operation in the upcoming academic session.

“There were reports of violations of child rights by a few institutions. We have started the regularisation process, and all play schools in the city have to comply with NCPCR norms and register with us,” said Sunaina Sharma, district programme officer, women and child development department. PK Das, additional chief secretary of the school education department, said: “The state does not have any rules or regulations for playschools at present.”

According to the guidelines, no child below the age of three years can be admitted to playschools. Also, fees charged by the school have to be regulated by the government and can be collected only on monthly or quarterly basis. While admitting a child, the school can’t collect any capitation fee or subject the child or their parents/guardians to any screening procedure. The rules clearly state that no playschool can give physical punishment to students, and that the curriculum should be laid down by an authority specified by the Union ministry of women and child development.

The move comes after a city-based

RTI

activist, Aseem Takyar, filed an RTI on the number of playschools in the city last month.

“I wanted information from the department about the number of playschools running in the city and if they are regularised or not. I was surprised to find out that none of these schools are recognised,” Takyar said.

Play schools claimed they are already abiding by the norms, though some disagreed with the rules. Geetika, admission-in-charge of Blooming Buds playschool in Sector 10A, said: “We are already meeting all the rules laid down by the government. We’ll go through the NCPCR guidelines and see what they are.”

Dolly Kochhar, owner of A Step Ahead playschool,

DLF 2

, said, “No curriculum can be set for small kids. Also, the whole point of having a cap on the fee structure won’t work because each playschool provides different facilities on the basis of which fees are decided.”

Meanwhile, parents welcomed the move, saying this would make playschools more answerable to authorities. “I hope the rules get implemented from this year onwards. Playschools have created chaos as they charge fees without regulations being put on them,” said Anjali Singh, who is looking out to get her daughter admitted in a playschool this year.