‘Confusing’ nursery admission guidelines throw parents into a tizzy

The Directorate of Education’s (DoE) move of issuing separate sets of guidelines for private schools operating on government land and the rest has thrown parents into a tizzy.

Late on Monday night, the DoE issued guidelines for nearly 1,400 private schools operating on private land, stating that the admission process for these institutions will start on January 2, 2017. These schools have been allowed to decide their own criteria for the nursery admissions and have been directed to upload them by January 1, 2017.

“The DoE decision of giving a freehand to these schools will create a lot of problems for parents as there are chances that they will make some random criteria compulsory for admissions,” said Pankaj Ahuja, a resident of north Delhi’s Kamala Nagar area, who is seeking admission for his second child.

Similarly, Vaishali Shekhar, a resident of east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area, expressed concern about the decision. “The DoE should make it clear that these schools should not misuse the power given to them and that they should give a fair chance to every parent seeking admission,” she said.

“I’m seeking admission for my first child and I have no idea about the nursery admission process. These schools have been asked to upload their guidelines by January 1 and the admissions will begin on January 2. I’m very worried about how I will manage in that short span of time,” she added.

Meanwhile, the DoE said that it will issue a separate set of guidelines for 285 schools operating on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land, on the condition that “the school shall not refuse admission to the resident of the locality” or “the society shall undertake to admit 75 per cent of students of the neighbourhood or from the locality in which the school is located”. This is the first time that a separate set of guidelines will be issued for the category.“Parents are concerned about when the guidelines for these 285 schools would be out and with how much distance limit. Parents with their first child in these schools are very tense,” said Sumit Vohra of the Nurseryadmissions.com.

The DoE has provided for a three-day window — February 16-18 — for parents to put forward their queries regarding the allotment of points to their wards in the first list.

Application forms will be available from January 2 and the last date of submission will be January 23. Details for the children competing for unreserved seats will have to be filled in by January 31. The first list of selected candidates and the waiting list will be posted on February 15. The second list should be out by February 28 and the process, if all goes according to plan, will be over by March 31, 2017.