Nursery admissions begin, no clarity about criteria in 298 schools

The race for nursery admissions began in the national capital today amid confusion about the criteria in nearly 300 schools running on DDA land for which the Delhi government has put the admission process on hold.
The government had last week directed 298 private schools, running on DDA and government land here, to withhold nursery admission process for the upcoming academic session till new guidelines are notified by the city administration.
Unaware about such schools, several parents flocked different schools only to be sent back by their officials.
The government, on the other hand, maintained that the approval for the same will be received soon and parents need not panic.

The government officials also claimed that the move will restrain the schools from taking arbitrary decisions in admissions to nursery classes.
"I had spoken to the LG about this issue during his oath-taking ceremony. I am hopeful that we will get an approval within one or two days and then the guidelines for admissions to these schools will also be issued," Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said.

The new guidelines for these schools include implementing a criteria of the distance between applicant's residence and the school. While these schools will be required to fill 75 per cent of seats with students who live in nearby localities, an official notification is awaited.

Though the admission process is online, parents still visited the schools to have a clarity on certain guidelines, criterion and admission process in the remaining 1,400 private schools.
Rahul Soni, who works as a telecaller, said he went to Greenfields Public School to verify the criteria.
"I have studied the guidelines in detail but after the admissions for the EWS (economically weaker section) has been made online there is lot of confusion about what applies where. So I wanted to check whether my understanding of the same is correct or not," he said.
Priya Bhatti, who went to Amity International School in Saket, said, "They (the school management) sent me back saying they have no instructions from the government about admissions yet. We don't even know which all schools have kept the admissions on hold so we can apply in the remaining ones," she said.

The application process will end on January 23.
The remaining 1,400 schools are free to decide the criteria and their points for admission but they will have to steer clear from a list of 51 criterions, which the government had abolished last year.
The abolished criteria include, parent's education, parent's profession, age, oral test and interview.
The first list of selected candidates, including the wait list candidates, along with marks allotted under point system, will be announced by schools on February 15.