Google Maps helps nursery admissions

Amid complaints that schools were manipulating nursery admissions under Economically Weaker Section category by taking advantage of the sole distance criterion, some of them have now opted for Google Maps to make the selection “fair and transparent”.

According to the guidelines issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE), children living within one kilometre of the school will get first preference in admission under the EWS category.

If seats still remain vacant, students residing within three kilometres of the school will be eligible for admission. The next limit extends to six kilometres and then beyond it, depending on the availability of seats. 

To ascertain the distance, majority of schools have taken the help of the DTC route map and metre-reading of school bus running in that area.

But a few schools, including Ahlcon International in Mayur Vihar, have decided to take help of the freely available technology -- Google Maps and Google Earth. “We wanted to be fair in our process of selection. So we employed all the options available to us, including Google Maps. It’s the most transparent way to ascertain the distance between the school and the residence of a child. We have also adopted other methods, including taking a declaration from the parents over their claims of the distance,” said Ashok Pandey, principal of the school.

The school will conduct a draw of selected candidates in the first week of March. Sumit Vohra, founder of the www.admissionsnursery.com, who had advocated using such technology last year, said: “All schools in the city should adopt such innovative ways to help put an end to confusion surrounding the issue of distance. There have been complaints by parents last year as well as this year that schools often manipulate the distance factor to give preference to children of their choice.

But, by adopting a method, which parents can scrutinise themselves, will obviously help minimise the problem,” he said.