Students under 6-yr age can’t be denied admission to Class I: HC

The HP High Court has directed the state government to implement the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 in a phased manner, as suggested by the Union Government.

The court directed the government that students, who are under the age of six years and have already completed pre-school curriculum, could not be denied admission to Class I for the 2024-25 academic session.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Rajiv Shakdher and Justice Satyen Vaidya passed the judgment on a batch of petitions espousing the cause of those students, who were less than six years of age even on September 30, 2024, and had already completed their pre-school curriculum but were being denied admission to Class I.

The petitioners have raised the grievance that through communications issued on November 24, 2023, and February 16, 2024, the state government decided to implement the provisions of the NEP-2020 in an arbitrary manner and as a result, a large number of students (likely to be in thousands) would have to repeat the upper kindergarten class (UKG), which would not only impede their intellectual and psychological development but would also cost the poor students in terms of money.

The court allowed the petitions and observed, “The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, has been enacted to achieve the objectives as enshrined in Article 21A of the Constitution. The RTE has made it mandatory for every child of the age of six to 14 years to have free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school till the completion of his/her elementary education. The term “child” under the Act means a male/female child of the age of six to 14 years. The term “elementary education”, as per the said Act, means education from Class I to VIII.

The court observed, “Against this backdrop, before the advent of the NEP-2020, we see no embargo on the admission of a student below six years of age to Class I. However, such a student will not be entitled to the benefit of free education at the elementary level before the age of six years.”