There are preschools at every turn, but who will monitor them?

The lack of separate rules and regulations and consistent monitoring system have led to mushrooming of private preschools or Early Childhood Care Education centres, which don’t come under the Right to Education Act (RTE)-2009

Every locality in Bengaluru now has multiple preschools, regarded as a boon by working parents. But how many such exist in the city?

Though the Department of School Education and Literacy is the sanctioning authority, it has no data on the number of schools and students — a clear indication of lax monitoring of these centres.

The lack of separate rules and regulations and a consistent monitoring system have led to the mushrooming of private preschools or Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) centres, which don’t come under the Right to Education Act (RTE)-2009.

It is estimated that there are around 40,000 privately run preschools in the State. Among these, about 20,000 preschools, permitted by the Department of School Education and Literacy, are managed by various private educational institutions. The rest are stand-alone establishments not attached to schools.

The department specifies guidelines while giving permission. One of them is that a preschool should have a minimum area of 2,000 sq. ft. of demarcated play space and separate toilets for boys and girls. But, there is no mechanism to check if these rules are being followed.

Will the situation change with Karnataka getting set to implement National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) in primary education? The policy promises universal access at all levels of learning from pre-primary school to Class XII. It promises quality early childhood care and schooling from the age of three. 

The existing 10+2 school curriculum structure will be replaced by a 5+3+3+4 curriculum structure corresponding to ages 3 to 8, 8 to 11, 11 to 14, and 14 to 18, respectively. This new system will include 12 years of schooling with three years of anganwadi or pre-primary education.