Today, High Court to hear petition challenging new nursery guidelines

The crucial hearing on the new guidelines for nursery admission is expected in the Delhi High Court on Monday. Only 10 days are left for the admission process to begin on January 15 as per the revised guidelines.

While the new guidelines have given parents a lot to cheer about, they have taken away the autonomy of the private schools which they used to command on the admission process.

A body of unaided private schools moved court challenging the nursery admission guidelines issued by the Lieutenant Governor which abolished the 20 per cent management quota. The Action Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools sought setting aside of these guidelines.

Some private unaided schools started the admission process with their own points systems in violation of the guidelines. They were issued notices by the Directorate of Education on Saturday.
Though the NGO after whose plea the new guidelines came into existence said the parents need not to worry as these are the tactics of private schools to delay the admission process.

“The parents should follow read the guidelines carefully and follow them,” member of Social Jurist said.

Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, on 18 December, issued new guidelines for the nursery admissions for the session 2014-15.

The neighbourhood criteria, which seeks schools to give preference to children living within the radius of 6 kilometer from school, has been given maximum weightage with 70 points out of 100 in the open category seats. Later, the LG enhanced the criteria to eight kilometre.

There are around one lakh seats in the nursery admissions and with the abolition of management quota, another 20,000 seats are available for the open category.

The total seats are divided into categories like 25 per cent for economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups. Five per cent seats for staff children and another five per cent for girls in co-educational schools.

The remaining 65 per cent of seats are for the general category. The guidelines were finalised by Jung who was asked by the High Court to look into the matter after the NGO filed a petition saying the guidelines were not in accordance with the Right to Education Act.