Nursery admission criteria soon, parents cross fingers

Distance from child’s home to school, siblings studying in the same school and alumni will be the main criteria for nursery admissions in Delhi starting from January 1.

The Delhi government had last week given the autonomy to the private schools to declare the guidelines by December 20 and asked them to display these on their websites and on the display boards.

As the criteria will be set on the lines of Ganguly committee recommendations, most private schools have decided to give the maximum weightage to the neighbourhood criterion (distance of child’s home from school).

Applicants who have a sibling studying in the same school and wards of school alumni will be second main points on the basis of which admissions would be done. According to the committee recommendations, a 100-point formula for nursery admissions will be followed.

“At least 30 per cent will be for neighbourhood criteria, 20 per cent for siblings and alumni each,” said Ameeta Wulla, principal of Springdales School, Pusa.

However, there will be no uniformity in the radius for the neighbourhood criteria. While most schools have decided to go for 3-5 km, some like Ambience Public School are planning to keep the criteria at 8-12 km.

However, some parents are worried over neighbourhood criteria being given the maximum weightage.

“My child couldn’t get admission last time as there is no good school in the neighbourhood. I hope this time some schools have increased the radius or my child gets an admission in some other criterion,” said a worried Vijay Paul.

The rest of the points for most schools are likely to go for single parents and first girl child.

“There is a lot of confusion among parents with regard to the guidelines. There will be no uniformity with respect to different criterions,” said Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, a portal representing the parent community in Delhi.

He has written a letter to the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia raising issues like making it optional for schools for conducting draw of lots for general category in the absence of parents.

“This is a grave concern among parents. Things such as conducting draws in the absence of an observer, video graphing the proceedings, and the presence of parents are mandatory in EWS admissions but the same are optional for schools for general category. Some schools are likely to misuse this authority,” said Vohra.

Draw of lots for general category would be conducted if there is a tie in points of two applicants.

Another issue that Vohra raised was no uniformity in upper age limit set by schools for admissions.

“Many old established schools keep upper cut-off age of 4 years on March 31 and on the contrary some schools give 15 extra points to kids older than 4 years. The Directorate of Education should deliberate on fixing it,” he said.