BENGALURU: Starting next academic year, all pre-schools in the state will be brought under the purview of the State Education Department. Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait said on Wednesday that the decision was taken as part of the action plan announced by the state government on child safety and security.
“All forms of pre-schools, nurseries, daycare centres, kindergartens, Montessori centres and others, should mandatorily register with the education department. Compliance with the norms set by the state government will be looked into from all sides and institutions which fail to keep up to the rules will not be permitted to function, starting next academic year,” he said.
Elaborating on the cabinet decision, he said that Home, Women & Child Welfare, Urban Development, Rural Development & Panchayat Raj and Social Work and Education departments will jointly work to ensure the safety and security of children.
“Such institutions should also have an area of one square metre per child on rolls, adding them to the land norms mentioned for education institutions as per the Karnataka Education Act,” he said.
Land norms for institutions revised
At a press meet at the Department of Pre-University Education office, he also presented the revised land norms required for educational institutions for affiliation. Within the BBMP and other municipal corporation limits, institutions imparting pre-primary (KG) to higher secondary (PU level) education are required to have a minimum land of 2,000 sqm. At the same time, schools which run classes from Grade 1 to 10 should have land of 1,500 sqm, and a minimum land of 1,000 sqm will be required for institutions which impart only primary education or solely secondary education. “The norms will be applicable to all institutions which seek fresh as well as renewal of affiliation. Institutions that fail to meet the norms will be given time to shift to new campuses at the first instance and later affiliation will be cancelled,” he said.
New online system to avoid ‘ghost students’
Clarifying queries related to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) discovering almost one lakh students existing only on paper after the linking of SSLC registrations to Students Achievement Tracking System (SATS), he admitted that the given number over the years were being taken for granted by the department. “With SATS in place, all student registrations are Aadhaar-linked, minimising repetition of such instances. A large share of students missing out on exams because of attendance shortage and private enrolments had also contributed to the large number difference between those registered and failing to appear for exams. Issuing hall-tickets online from this year will also curb such malpractices making the entire system fool-proof from now on,” he said.
