How to Open a Preschool in Karnataka: A Complete Guide with Checklist
If you are someone who is planning to open a preschool in Karnataka, then getting a license/certificate of registration is mandatory.
In this article, we’ll understand the entire process of registering your preschool. Now, let’s see the exact steps on how to open a preschool in Karnataka.
Open A Preschool in Karnataka
Table of Contents
- Why should you register your preschool
- Who supervises and approves your application
- Requirements to open a Preschool in Karnataka
- Step-by-step process to open a Preschool
- Important points to remember before applying
- Documents checklist
Why should you register your preschool?
Registering your preschool with the State Government ensures compliance with state-specific regulations and grants some major advantages to your preschool over other non-registered preschools:
- Quality assurance: Registration ensures that preschools meet government-approved standards for infrastructure, staff qualifications, curriculum, and safety measures.
- Easy education: An assessment report granted by a registered preschool holds more weight and is recognizable by other schools/universities. This allows easy migration or transfers from one school to another or one state to another.
- Child Safety: Licensing helps guarantee a safe and conducive learning environment for children.
- Credibility and Trust: Registered preschools gain credibility and trust from parents, making them more attractive choices.
- Government Support: Licensed preschools may have access to government resources, guidance, and support.
- Informed Decision-Making: Parents can make informed choices about preschools based on their registration status.
- Legal Compliance: Obtaining a registration licence is a legal requirement for preschools operating in Karnataka.
Who supervises and approves your application?
At the top level, school education in Karnataka falls under the purview of The Department of Public Instruction. The Department of Public Instruction is also known as the Department of School Education.
The registration of Preschools or Pre-primary schools in Karnataka is managed by the Department of Public Instruction.
At the bottom level, a Block Education Officer (BEO) is responsible to review, inspect, and manage the registration application for preschools.
A BEO is an administrative position in the Indian education department that is responsible for managing, supervising, and improving education at the block level.
A block is a division of a district that is made up of clusters of towns or villages. Every city has a Block Education Office. Some cities have more than 1 BEO’s.
For example, if you were opening your preschool in the Hebbal area in Bengaluru, then the BEO authority for your application would be the BEO Office in Yelahanka. If you were opening a preschool in Bellary, then the BEO office in Bellary would undertake the review and grant of registration.
Requirements to open a Preschool in Karnataka
Type of Organisation
People often wonder which organizational structure is most suitable for a preschool. To reduce the confusion the Government has prescribed the following legal organisations that can register as a preschool or apply for a preschool licence:
- Society registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960 (Karnataka Act 17 of 1960).
- A Charitable Trust registered under the Indian Trust Act 1882.
- Company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (Central Act 18 of 2013)
- A Non-profit-motive Limited Liability Partnership, registered under the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2008 (Central Act 6 of 2009)
Every type of organisation has its own advantages and disadvantages. Finalising the type of organization for your preschool should be done after consulting an experienced Chartered Accountant.
Land and Building Requirement
You can start your preschool in a building that is owned by you or in a building space that is taken on rent or lease. The Government has prescribed certain rules for all types of preschool buildings. Before you rent, lease, buy or construct the building it would be prudent to take the following points under consideration:
- A minimum of 2000 sq.ft. of building carpet area is required, preferable in the ground floor.
- A carpet area of 1 square metre per student or 10.7 sq.ft.
The above requirements are applicable to buildings that are located under:
- BBMP and Other Municipal Corporation Areas, as well as
- Other Areas
So, to check whether or not, the location of your school comes under BBMP and other Municipal Corporations Areas, you are required to follow the above rules.
Registration Fees
The registration fees payable to Government of Karnataka for Pre Primary School registration is as follows:
- For a Preschool that falls under BBMP Area – ₹ 15,000
- A Preschool that falls under Urban Area other than BBMP Area – ₹ 7,500
- For a Preschool that falls under Rural Area – ₹ 2,500
Note:
The registration fee is non-refundable.
Safety Standards to Open A Preschool in Karnataka
The new preschool should meet the following safety standards:
- Physical Safety that includes infrastructure
- Health and transportation
- Personal and Sexual Safety
- Social and Emotional Safety
- Cyber Safety and
- Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management
Since there is very little information on the portal regarding these, we have spoken with multiple preschools and gathered as much information regarding each of the above:
Physical Safety that includes infrastructure
- One of the most important parts of the registration process is submission of the building plan. By way of this, the department ensures that the building structure is permanent, strong and fixed.
The preschool’s infrastructure must include washrooms for children and teachers (preferably separate), playing area, tables, chairs, learning material, drinking water facility. - In some cases, you will have to obtain Building Safety Certificate and Fire Safety Certificate.
Health and Transportation
The new preschool must:
- Maintain cleanliness and hygiene at all times
- Provide clean drinking water facility
- Ensure that teachers are trained in First Aid and have a First Aid Kit available.
- If transportation is provided, then proper rules should be framed for transportation facilities for the safety of children.
Personal and Sexual Safety
- The school must ensure that there is no abuse of any kind. It should put in place strict rules and regulations for the same.
- A grievance officer must be assigned for the same.
- CCTV cameras must be installed inside the preschool.
Social and Emotional Safety
The preschool must ensure that the staff and children feel emotionally safe. There should not be any kind of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex or religion.
Cyber Safety
- The preschool should ensure that the personal data of its staff and students is private and protected. The data must be stored securely.
- There must be limited access to such data and provisions must be made to ensure that such data is not misused.
Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Management
- Install fire extinguishers at all necessary locations in the school.
- Check and refill Fire Extinguishers regularly.
- Display Exit Plans on walls/doors. Exit Plans must be clearly and easily visible to everyone.
- First Aid Training must be provided at regular intervals.
- Carry out Emergency Drills regularly.
- Emergency numbers must be displayed prominently.
Step-by-step process to register and open a Preschool in Karnataka
I have covered all the necessary steps involved in the registration process of a Preschool in Karnataka in separate parts for ease of understanding:
A – Online registration and submission
- Visit Karnataka School Education website and find the online school registration link.
- Create a new account by visiting the school registration portal.
- Check the relevant Academic Year before creating a new account.
- Follow the steps and pay the challan fees.
- Save the challan receipt as it contains the challan number. A photocopy of the receipt is required later in the process.
After paying the challan fees, you must fill in all necessary information and upload the required documents. - You can save the application and login anytime later to resume the application where you left-off.
- After you have filled the information and uploaded the documents, submit your application.
- An acknowledgement copy will be generated.
- Save the acknowledgement copy as it is very important. Take a print out of the same.
B – Review and verification
- The BEO of your zone will review your application and contact you in a few days. It is advisable that you reach out to the BEO and track your application.
- The BEO will ask you to submit a photocopy of challan receipt, acknowledgement copy and all the documents. Refer to the Documents Checklist section for the complete list.
- After all the details and documents provided by you are verified, the BEO will assign a Field Officer to inspect your preschool premises.
C – Physical inspection
The assigned BEO Field Officer will visit individually or with a team of officers to your preschool on the scheduled date and time for physical inspection. Here are a few things they may inspect:
Preschool building
They will ensure that the preschool building has structural integrity and will also check if the building is safe for children, whether it has proper ventilation, windows and doors.
Furniture and preschool learning materials
The inspection team will ensure that the preschool is providing tables and chairs for children, preschool learning materials, books, playground and other toys needed for effective learning. Therefore, it is very important that you have the necessary preschool materials and furniture during the inspection process.
If you are looking to buy preschool materials and preschool furniture, our team of can guide you and provide the necessary curriculum, furniture and preschool materials for your preschool. Our curriculum, furniture, preschool toys and learning materials align with the NEP Guidelines and ensure seamless approval from the inspection team.
Safety and security
The safety and security measures taken by the preschool will be inspected. I have specified everything regarding safety and security under the Requirements section.
Health and hygiene
The inspection team will ensure that the preschool maintains cleanliness, has a provision for toilets, drinking water etc.
After physical inspection of the preschool premises the BEO will grant the licence certificate only if the BEO is satisfied with everything.
Important points to remember before applying for preschool registration in Karnataka:
- If your application gets rejected then you will have to re-apply and pay the full fee again because the fee is non-refundable.
- Ensure that you have gathered all the necessary information before initiating the application online to save time and money.
- Every Academic Year has a due date. Submit the application form and registration fee before this date. Because if you fail to pay the fee or submit the application, you will need to wait until the registration process re-opens in the next Academic Year.
- During the registration process you will have to upload all the documents and photos. However, if the size of documents and photos is too large then you won’t be able to upload.
- Always visit the BEO of your zone and consult with them the procedure to register a preschool.
To make the registration process even easier, I have compiled a checklist of documents that are required for registration of a preschool in Karnataka.
Documents Checklist to Open a Preschool in Karnataka
The following is a list of all the documents and information needed during the registration process.
- Registration letter of the entity or organisation.
- Society Registration Letter in the case of Society
- Trust Deed in the case of Trust (Trust Deed must have been registered with the sub-registrar)
- Certificate of Incorporation and Section 8 Certificate in the case of a Company registered under Section 8 of Companies Act, 2013
- LLP Registration Certificate or Certificate of Incorporation in the case of LLP
- Ownership Documents of the Land and Building or
- Rent Agreement or Lease Agreement for a period of 30 years
- Building Safety Certificate (Issued by Public Works Department Officer)
- Fire Safety Certificate (Issued by Fire & Emergency Services Department)
- Photographs of
- School building
- School Compound
- Doors with secure locks
- Classrooms
- Toilets
- Drinking Water facility
- CCTV Cameras
- Playground
- Learning Equipment and Furniture
- Fire Extinguishers
- Document regarding installation of lift/elevator in a school building above three floors.
- Certificates regarding measures taken for child safety.
- KYC of Trustees/Partners/Directors.
- List of teachers along with their KYC and educational details.
- Floor plans
- The plot size (land size)
- Teaching Area out of the total plot size (Building Carpet Area) (this must be at least 2000 sq.ft.)
- The registration fee challan number
Disclaimer: The process, requirements and documents checklist to open a preschool in Karnataka have been compiled after a thorough research by our team. The same may undergo changes at any point of time. We recommend you to kindly consult the BEO or The Department of Public Instruction regarding the current rules, regulations and procedure to open a Preschool or Pre-primary School in Karnataka.
