The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
L-G nod to guidelines for 298 schools on govt land
NURSERY ADMISSIONS
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Anil Baijal on Saturday approved the new guidelines for nursery admissions in the 298 private schools that are on DDA land. The guidelines state that the schools will have to give preference to students living in the neighbourhood. Significantly, the guidelines also state that there will be “no management quota” in admissions.
The Delhi government had argued that a clause in the allotment letter, given to these schools when they had taken the land from them, had stated that admission could not be refused to those in the locality but the file was lying with the L-G’S office for over 10 days for certain “clarifications”.
Neighbourhood — as per the guidelines — comprises a 6 km radius of a school. However, the guidelines also state that preference has to be given first to students who live within a 1 km radius. “In case vacancies remains unfilled, students residing within 1-3 km radius of the school shall be admitted. If there are still vacancies, then admission shall be offered to other students residing within 3-6 km radius. Students residing beyond 6 km shall be admitted only in case vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within the 6 km area,” the guidelines state.
In a tweet, Education Minister Manish Sisodia said, “These guidelines by the government will ensure transparency in the admission process of these 298 schools.”
Even within the neighbourhood, first preferences will be given to those whose siblings go to the same school. Some schools have also been given the right to reserve seats for students belonging to the “minority community”, and schools set up for specific categories such as armed forces or paramilitary forces have also been given the right to reserve seats for their wards.
Education Director Saumya Gupta said, “We will put out the timeline for these schools on Monday. It will be an extended timeline given that they're starting late. We've assured schools that we'll be as fair as possible.”