Nursery and kindergarten classes commenced on Tuesday in all government primary schools of Punjab for children in the age group of 3 to 6 years.
The duration of the classes would be three hours and everything would be free of cost, state education minister Aruna Chaudhary said while formally launching the initiative at a government elementary school here.
This would help in strengthening physical, intellectual as well as creative faculties in children and would be well conversant with the school environment, she said.
The children have been divided into three groups -- nursery (3 to 4 years), lower kindergarten (4 to 5 years) and upper kindergarten (5 to 6 years), Chaudhary said.
She said approximately 1.5 lakh students have taken admission and the process would go on till the end of this month.
The minister said Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) would meet four times a year to ensure that every teacher gets a shot at promotion.
"Deliberations are going on to form a separate cadre for the border areas in order to fulfil shortfall of teachers in those regions," Chaudhary said.
She assured the anganwadi workers that their jobs would be secure and their services would be utilised to the maximum extent to keep the project going.
State education secretary Krishan Kumar exhorted all teachers to work with more vigour, zest and zeal to ensure further success of the project.
