Private schools continue playing foul in nursery admissions

Several private schools seem to continue with arbitrary requirement for nursery school admissions selling over priced admission forms and even asking for bank details of the the three-year-old candidates, openly flouting guidelines laid down by the Directorate of Education.

A parent requesting anonymity said, St Mark's school located in west Delhi's Meera Bagh area has asked them to pay Rs 350 for a nursery admission form. "Today when my husband and I went to collect the form from Magic Beans, the junior branch of the school at Meera Bagh area, we found that they were selling each form for Rs 350, which costs Rs 25 elsewhere," she said.

Some parents claimed that Maharaja Agrasen School of north-west Delhi's Ashok Vihar area asked for the bank account details of the candidate along with the IFSC code. "The school has asked for the bank account details of the students along with a copy of the passbook. How can a three-year-old child have a bank account?" asked another parent on condition of anonymity.

Confirming the parent's grievances, Sumit Vohra of admissions.nursery.com said that their portal had received several complaints against these school last year as well. "We have received several complaints against these schools. Many parents have told us that these schools are not maintaining transparency in their admission procedures, leaving them in a tizzy," he said.

Later in the day, the Directorate of Education tightened its grip over the private schools operating under it asking them to set transparent and non-discriminatory guidelines as per the order of the Delhi High court. "As per the orders of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi, all Private Schools have to adopt a criteria of admission which must be clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous, and transparent," the DoE said in a circular.

The DoE has also asked the schools to clearly make the number of seats and criteria public, along with the list of selected candidates, to maintain transparency.

"The circular has come days after our portal had informed the DoE and the Delhi government about the arbitrary regulations being imposed by several private schools including candidate's Aadhar card, parents' annual income even as some of them are profiling parents for the nursery registration," Vohra said.

Nursery admissions in 1700 odd private schools had started in the Delhi on January 2, however, the guidelines for 298 schools, operating on the DDA land are still awaited.