Private schools move HC against nursery admission guidelines

A body of unaided private schools today moved the Delhi High Court challenging the nursery admission guidelines issued by the Lieutenant Governor by which various steps including weightage to neighborhood kids and abolition of 20 per cent management quota were taken.
The plea of the Action Committee for Unaided Recognized Private Schools, which is likely to be taken up on Monday, seeks setting aside of the 2014-15 guidelines on the ground that the office of the LG lacked the power to frame them.
It claimed the guidelines were against the principle of autonomy and the recognized unaided private schools were given the power by the Central government to formulate their own admission criteria for 75 per cent seats.

Central government, the Directorate of Education (DoE) and the office of LG have been made party in the plea.
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, on 18 December, issued new guidelines for the nursery admissions for the session 2014-15 and took various steps such as scrapping of 20 per cent management quota.
The neighborhood criteria, which seeks schools to give preference to children living within the radius of 6 kilometer from school, has been given maximum weightage with 70 points out of 100 in the open category seats. Later, the LG enhanced the criteria to eight kilometre.

The LG, however, had refused to the decision to scrap the management quota.

Besides these, the applicants who have sibling studying in the same school will get 20 points and five points will be added by default in the application of girls and wards of school alumni.
The guidelines also seek the minority schools to have 25 per cent seats reserved, like other schools, for the economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups of the society.
The DoE or the Delhi government or the LG does not have the power to fix criteria of admission in unaided private schools, the petition said.
The admission process for nursery classes will start from 15 January and the last date for submission of applications is fixed on January 31.