For the first time, government schools in Punjab have started enrolling students into nursery classes for the 2024-25 academic session in compliance with the National Education Policy (NEP), with the Ludhiana district leading with the highest number of admissions in the state.
“Ludhiana is leading in the number of registrations for nursery class for the new academic session, followed by Mansa and Patiala district,” Manoj Kumar, deputy district education officer (elementary), said.
According to the instructions by the state government, the age limit to get admitted into nursery class is 3 years, so that a three year foundation course is completed before they enter Class 1. Prior to this, the government schools had only 2-year kindergarten classes (LKG and UKG).
It is for the first time that the government schools have started enrolling students in the nursery class. Earlier, there were only LKG and UKG classes.
“Initially parents were forced to enroll their kids for nursery in private schools and many times, they preferred not to change their kids’ school after nursery, avoiding the whole process of registration that they need to go through again. But now, this initiative has made things easy for them,” Kumar said.
The duration of the class for the nursery students would be one hour only, which is an hour less than the duration for the students of LKG and UKG, as per the guidelines of the education department.
The registration date for the nursery classes has been extended till May 31, 2024.
Commenting on the availability of teachers for the nursery classes, Kumar said that for now, the teachers taking LKG and UKG classes would be teaching nursery students too.
“There should be at least one newly appointed teacher for the new academic session for nursery class but as of now, there is no such directive from the government, which is why schools would be managing with their current teaching staff,” he said.
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