India, May 17 -- In a bid to regulate and improve early childhood education in Maharashtra, the department of education has launched a state-wise registration drive for all private pre-primary institutions catering to children in the age group of three to six years. These include schools operating under names such as pre-school, nursery, junior KG, and senior KG. Until now, only government-run anganwadis and balwadis were officially documented by the Women and Child Development department, while private pre-schools remained untracked.

Recognizing the lack of official data and increasing demand for transparency, the education department began the registration process 15 days ago. According to the department's latest report, 11,173 private...