As preschools reopen, there is demand from parents, many of whom have resumed work from office, to extend the functioning hours.
While the Department of Primary and Secondary Education has allowed preschools to function for stipulated hours, managements of these centres say they are likely to remain open till evening as there is demand from working parents.
Preethi S., a private company employee, said she had decided to enrol her daughter to a preschool only if it offered day-care facility. “I have started working from office and I drop my daughter at my parents’ place. Dropping and picking her up would not be possible. I would have skipped sending her this academic year to a preschool if they didn’t have a day-care facility. But luckily, my daughter’s preschool has decided to open their day care as many working parents demanded,” she said.
One of the trustees of a preschool at Jayanagar said parents choose to sign up with preschools only if they offer day-care facilities till evening.
Pruthvi Banwasi, secretary, Karnataka Council of Preschools, said, “We have decided to run the preschool for a few hours from 10 a.m. and then parents can opt for day-care facilities till evening if they are interested.”
Many other preschools have opted to do the same as they feel that there is lack of monitoring mechanism and that they would not be penalised for not following the regulations. “In fact, we have been running day-care centres for the last one month. We do not advertise or publicise about this. So we have not landed in any trouble so far,” said a preschool owner.
While pre-schools come under the purview of the Department of Primary and Secondary Education, there is no clarity as to under whose purview day-care centres come under.
No monitoring
A senior official of the department said preschool managements could impart education for a few hours a day and later offer day-care facilities, if needed. “It does not come under our purview to monitor day-care centres. As long as they are not teaching students after the specified time, we will not penalise them,” the official said.
