Reshma Ravishanker (Bengaluru)

Pre-primary education is the only sector not subject to government controls and regulation. Although the country’s 1.34 million pre-primary Anganwadi Centres (AWCs), promoted by the Central government under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS, 1975) to provide nutrition to new borns and lactating mothers and also provide basic education, are subject to funding supervision and regulation by the Central and state governments, private preschools were never on the radar of government until EducationWorld convened the country’s first international ECCE (early childhood care and education) Conference in 2010.

Since then as awareness dawned that children’s brains are almost 80 percent developed before age eight and therefore formal professionally administered ECCE is critically important, the number of private preschools has exploded. A large and growing number of educationists, businessmen, edupreneurs and also international preschool chains have promoted pre-primaries/preschools countrywide which offer ECCE at all price points ranging from Rs.30,000-300,000 per year. Moreover since the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has mandated compulsory ECCE for all children in the three-six age group, there’s widespread expectation of a boom in professionally administered ECCE.

Unsurprisingly, there is a loud and growing chorus for government regulation of privately provided preschool education in Karnataka. In 2018, the state government issued a circular mandating all private preschools statewide to register with the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL). But the order was not implemented. On May 27, DSEL has issued yet another circular directing all “newly started” private unaided preschools to “compulsorily” register with the department on its Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) portal. 

The circular defines pre-primary education as non-formal education provided to children aged three to five years before they enter class I, and specifies conditions that preschools must fulfill to be eligible for registration. The conditions include a building with a carpet area of one sq.m per student, subject to a minimum 2,000 sq. ft, preferably on the ground floor with a playground; 18×20 ft classrooms; a building fitness certificate and fire safety clearance in addition for “ensuring physical, personal and sexual safety of children”. However, even as registration of “newly started” preschools is mandatory, it’s not clear whether the conditions apply to existing preschools.

 According to DSEL estimates, Karnataka hosts 45,000 private preschools, many of whom run classes for tiny tots in residential buildings, basements, and unauthorised structures, posing significant security risk to young children. Through the registration mandate, DSEL hopes “to ensure safety of children, quality of education and standards across early childhood education institutions” and collect “proper data about the number of preschools in the state”.

Given the history of successive state governments to over-regulate K-12 and higher education institutions and prescribe highly discretionary rules which facilitate shakedowns, extortion and retail corruption, private preschool promoters are wary about the DSEL’s registration order.

“We welcome the government’s decision to initiate registration of all new preschools. It will help gather data about the number of preschools in the state and ensure adherence to minimum standards of teaching-learning, infrastructure and safety. However, the circular is vague and confusing about registration eligibility criteria. While it mandates one sq. m area per child, which is practical, it also mandates 18×20 ft classrooms which is not. A large number of preschools operate out of residential homes and the requirement of 18×20 ft classrooms is unrealistic, especially in metropolitan Bengaluru. It’s also unclear whether registered preschools need to pay electricity and water charges according to commercial or residential rates. Moreover, we hope that the registration of new preschools is not the beginning of incremental government interference in the management of private preschools,” says Pritam Agarwal, Vice President of the Early Childhood Association of India and Bengaluru-based founder of Hello Kids, which has 1,030 franchised preschools countrywide.

DSEL’s May 27 circular has generated anxiety within preschool managements in the state who fear “harassment” after registration. “The track record of the Karnataka government which has the reputation of being the country’s most corrupt state, is not good. There is every possibility that for registration and thereafter, we will be obliged to fulfill numerous conditions and obtain a plethora of permissions for which we will have to pay bribes. The best option is to establish an independent ECCE Regulatory Authority on the line of TRAI and IRA to supervise and regulate private pre-primaries. Moreover instead of focusing its attention on private preschools, the government should upgrade and contemporise the state’s 69,919 AWCs which are in pitiful condition,” says a private preschool promoter who preferred to remain anonymous.

However it’s doubtful if this well-considered, sage advice will be heeded by the state’s control-and-command neta-babu brotherhood. DSEL’s registration mandate is likely to be the first step towards levelling down the state’s best private preschools to the level of AWCs. 

Also Read: Efforts are on to better Kannada-medium schools: Karnataka education minister