A preschool, also known as a nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school, is an educational institution providing early childhood education to children before they start primary school.

National education policy 2020 says-

Over 85% of a child’s cumulative brain development occurs prior to the age of 6, indicating the critical importance of appropriate care and stimulation of the brain in the early years in order to ensure healthy brain development and growth.

In Gujarat, two main types of pre-primary education are available:

1. Aanganwadi (Government): Here, the government offers nutritional support and pre-primary education. Aanganwadis are closely monitored by government officials, such as SDM-DM, who inspect them regularly. A plethora of manuals, circulars, and instruction books guide Aanganwadi workers. Media also keeps a close eye on their operations. Moreover, Aanganwadis fall under the RTI Act, making them directly accountable to citizens.

2. Private Pre-Primary Schools (PPPS): Surprisingly, in Gujarat, there is no regulation for private per-primary schools. PPPSs do not require government permission to open. Essentially, they do not exist on official government documents (except for FRC). District primary education offices, such as in Ahmedabad, stated in response to RTI inquiries that per-primary schools are not under their jurisdiction.

In these PPPS, there are no established rules and regulations concerning the qualifications and eligibility of the teachers. Many PPPSs hire staff at salaries ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 Rupees who may hold the title of "teacher" but often lack proper training.

Secondly, God Forbid if unfortunate event of any untoward incident occurring in a pre-primary school, who will be held accountable? This question is crucial, especially considering the tragic fire incident at a coaching center in Surat which claimed the lives of 17 innocent individuals. Since January 17, 2022, I have been searching for an answer to this question. PPPSs in Ahmedabad operate within various spaces such as homes, shopping complexes, and commercial buildings.

I have raised these concerns in letters to the Secretary of Primary Education, Government of Gujarat, and the District Education Officer in Ahmedabad. However, as of yet, I have not received a response from either office.

Let's delve into the business side of Private Pre-primary Schools. According to a report by Divya Bhaskar, these schools contribute to an annual business of 1200 crores in Gujarat.

Following the Patidar Aandolan, the Government of Gujarat enacted a law called "The Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017" (referred to as the FRC Act from hereon) to regulate school fees. Interestingly, while pre-primary schools do not require permission to open, there is no specific regulation regarding the quality of education and facilities in PPPS, PPPSs do need approval from the Fee Regulation Committee (FRC) for their fees. Let's explore how these two aspects are contradictory.

Section 2(U) of the FRC Act defines self-financed schools, which includes pre-primary schools within its scope of definition.

As per the section 8 (d) of this act, Fee Regulation committee ( FRC) has to ensure that Self finance school is recognized by the some education -

Section 9 of the act which deal with the exceptions says

Here is the list of the all self finance schools including PPPS of the Ahmadabad zone with fees decided by the FRC. From this list, we can divide PPPS in three following categories.

1.PPPS that are attached to Primary schools
2. PPPS that operate independent but applied in FRC
3 PPPS that operate independent and not applied in FRC.

According to Section 9 of the act, it's evident that category 3 PPPS are not subject to any regulations, while categories 1 and 2 fall under regulation.

Sections 2(U) and 8(D) of the FRC Act stipulate that PPPS should be recognized by the education board. However, as mentioned earlier, PPPS do not require permission to establish or run schools. Thus, it seems they are not affiliated with any school board. This raised my curiosity about how the FRC has approved the fees for these schools. Consequently, I filed an RTI to uncover this information.

And here is what I found in the process of the RTIs

Category 1 PPPS which are affiliated with other primary school...

During the process of the RTIs, I discovered an interesting practice among PPPS. Many of these schools display their CBSE affiliation certificates for their primary schools in the section dedicated to PPPS affiliations. Surprisingly, the Fee Regulation Committee (FRC) seems to be accepting this practice, despite it contradicting the text of the Act. While this may be seen as a grey area, there is a case that clearly violates the Act.

Category 2 PPPS, which are standalone pre-primary schools and have applied to the FRC, like...

Upon inspecting the files of a few PPPS that applied to the FRC, I made an intriguing discovery. In the section meant for certification of affiliation with the school board, they had placed certificates of affiliation with the charity commissioner. I requested a copy of this file, yet the FRC Ahmedabad has not provided it. This matter is now pending with the Gujarat Information Commission.

From these findings, two questions arise that the FRC needs to address:

1. In category 1, where there are undoubtedly grey areas, why does the FRC give the benefit of the doubt to schools without seeking clarification from the legislative body that passed the act?

2. Standalone pre-primary schools are exempt under Section 9 of the act. Why, then, did they choose to apply to the FRC, and why did the FRC allow the use of charity commissioner affiliation instead of education board affiliation?

Amidst all these things , A Good news is that. Recently Divya Bhskar did a breaking story ( though based on news sources) that Pre primary schools are soon going to be regulated.