HC raps DoE for not implementing order on nursery admission

The Delhi High Court today rapped the Directorate of Education (DoE) for failing to implement its order on nursery admissions in the appropriate schools for children with special needs (CWSNs).
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi pulled up the government after the DoE was unable to reply to it queries regarding how many such children have been admitted in various private unaided schools after the department created its online admission forms.
The DoE had earlier informed the court it has uploaded all information regarding facilities available for CWSNs in each of the private schools in Delhi on its website, and parents of the children could access the information on the web and apply for admission to the appropriate school through the forms available on its site.

Advocate Anshumaan Sahni, appearing for petitioner Pramod Arora, who had filed the original PIL regarding facilities for CWSNs in Delhi schools, today said that parents who had filled the forms online, were being turned away by the schools.
"When the parents approach the school, they are told that we have filled our seats, you go to the DoE," Sahni said.
The court also asked the DoE whether there was any data on the number of parents who had registered their children online and who had actually been granted admission.

However, the DoE said the data was not available as the admission process was still going on.

"The purpose of these orders was to ensure that at least for 2015-16 the parents of children with special needs (CWSNs) were made aware in advance about the process and could approach schools which cater to the concerned disability. The response of the DoE indicates that this objective has not been fulfilled," the court observed in its order.
The court directed the DoE to file a detailed affidavit by March 25 giving the total number of CWSNs who have been admitted to the 231 unaided private schools in the city which offer facilities.
It has also asked the DoE to look into whether children of 51 applicant parents have been admitted in any of the 231 schools.