New Delhi, Jan 27 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday gave a go-ahead to schools to admit children aged three-plus years to nursery classes.

The court refused to interfere with age criteria for pre-school and pre-primary classes, and said the schools which have admitted children aged three-plus will continue to do so.

The court gave its order on a plea of an NGO against the Delhi government’s recent order that allowed unaided private schools in the city to admit toddlers of three-plus years in pre-school (nursery) classes.

The court Jan 18 reserved its order on pre-school (nursery) admissions in city schools which are to put up on Feb 1 the first list of toddlers selected for the 2012-13 academic session.

In its petition, NGO Social Jurist challenged the Delhi government’s guidelines on admissions to schools.

It said the Delhi government’s education directorate violated an earlier judgment of the court that no child below the age of four years would be admitted for formal schooling.

The NGO sought a “stay of the order dated Dec 16, 2011, of the Delhi government to the extent it permits unaided recognised private schools of Delhi to conduct admissions to pre-school as entry level class in the academic session 2012-13″.

Ashok Agarwal, counsel for the NGO, alleged that the government had failed to prevent unaided recognised private schools from admitting children above three years but below four years of age in formal school.

The NGO sought a ban on such admissions and pleaded that formal schooling should start with the pre-primary class where only children above four years were admitted.