According to the DoE guidelines released on Saturday, applicants within the first kilometer of the school, with a sibling admitted there, will get the first preference
For Rashi Kumar, a resident of west Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, seeking a nursery seat for her three-year-old daughter has become a nightmare after the Directorate of Education (DoE) declared neighbourhood as a major criterion for admission in the 300-odd most popular private schools in Delhi.
“We had made a list of 15-16 schools of our choice for our daughter’s admission but all of them are at a distance of 8-10 km from our home. Now, my daughter will not even be in the last preference list for these schools,” she said.
According to the DoE guidelines released on Saturday, applicants within the first kilometer of the school, with a sibling admitted there, will get the first preference. It will be followed by candidates within 3km and then within 6km.
“I filled a form for the closest school from my place, which is also at a distance of 8 km,” Kumar said, adding that she was scared she would be left with no choice but to enroll her daughter, a first child, in a not-so-popular school.
Several thousands of parents like Kumar, who live in areas with very few schools, are in a fix. “It’s like robbing a child of her or his right to good education. How can the government decide where should we enroll our child and where not?” rued Kundan Kumar, another parent.
Meanwhile, parents thronged the schools to collect admission forms on Monday, only to be disappointed as most of the 298 schools operating on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land did not issue the forms as they were still waiting for the DoE schedule.
“The delay in issuing the schedule has added to our problems. The last date for submitting the applications is January 23 and we still don’t have forms. That is why we have started applying in schools that were not even our first priority,” said Shakarpur resident Priya Mittal.
A guard at the ASN Senior Secondary School said: “We had to turn away more than 300 parents who had come for admission forms.”
Meanwhile, according to experts, the distance from a residence to a school should be measured via aerial route. Several schools, including the GD Goenka Public School, however, are deciding the distance based on the bus route, leading to confusion among parents.
“We are getting many queries from parents regarding the method of measuring the distance. There is no clear notification from the DoE in this regard,” said Sumit Vohra of the admissionsnursey.com.
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