Maharashtra To Mandate Registration & Quality Standards For All Private Preschools

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government plans to introduce legislation to regulate private pre-schools and ensure quality standards, the state Assembly was informed on Friday. The proposed law will make the registration of preschools compulsory and provide for the creation of a competent authority to oversee the process, School Education Minister Dadaji Bhuse said during Question Hour.

The issue of mandatory registration was raised by BJP legislator Manisha Choudhary and several other members. Bhuse informed the House that the government had issued a circular on April 24, 2025, directing all private institutions providing pre-primary education to register on the Pre-school Registration Portal. So far, 12,733 schools have completed their registration.

The remaining private pre-primary institutions have been urged to register with the state government. The exercise will help create a single-point database of all such institutions at the state and district levels, which will also benefit parents seeking information about preschools, the minister said. He added that pre-primary schools will not be allowed to conduct written or oral entrance tests for admission.

Instead, institutions may carry out only a holistic assessment of children’s development through an appropriate curriculum. Apart from issuing guidelines, the government also plans to prescribe standards such as a studentteacher ratio of 20:1, the availability of toys and learning materials, and child-friendly infrastructure.

The proposal has been forwarded to the Law and Judiciary Department for legal opinion after receiving inputs from the Women and Child Development Department. The government aims to complete the process before the next academic year, Bhuse said.