The nursery rush starts again

Guidelines for 298 schools on DDA land likely to be out by January 4

THE NURSERY admission process in about 1,400 schools began on a confusing note on Monday as parents tried to figure out which schools were accepting forms and which weren’t. Guidelines for 298 schools, built on government-owned land, have not been declared yet as the Delhi government wants to implement a clause that will not refuse admission to applicants from the neighbourhood.

The admission guidelines for the 298 schools might come out by Wednesday, officials at the offices of the Lieutenant-governor and the Education Minister said.

The clause to not refuse admission was part of the land allotment letter, but was never implemented; neither was neighbourhood or locality defined in the letter. The Delhi government has said the schools will have to fix 1 km as the minimum distance and that there is no upper limit. The file to implement this decision is awaiting the approval of L-G Anil Baijal.

“The issue is already on his mind and he has spoken to officials in the education department to understand it better. We should expect clearance within a day or two,” said an official at the L-G office. Delhi government officials said they had got similar feedback. Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia said he had discussed the matter with the new L-G on Saturday and he was hopeful that the file will be passed in two days.

Baijal was the vice-chairperson of the land owning agency — Delhi Development Authority (which gave land to the schools in 2003) — and the government is hoping he will understand the issue quicker because of this experience.

Monday, however, proved to be stressful for parents.

Neeta Rana, 34, visited five schools in Vasant Kunj on Monday to realise that only one of them was allowed to declare admission criteria. “It is extremely confusing. Some schools are already accepting applications while others are not. I want to make sure my daughter doesn’t miss out on the chance to get into a good school,” said Rana.

But it is not only the aspirants of these schools who are stuck without any clear information on the admission process.

The centralised admission process for applicants from the economically weaker section (EWS) has still not been announced. All schools have to reserve 25% of all seats at the entry level for students from the EWS category. Government officials said the process is likely to start by next week.