Activists to move court against nursery verdict

Schools happy to retain autonomy, parents confused

While private schools say they have got their autonomy back in nursery admission with the High Court quashing the last year’s Lieutenant Governor guidelines on Friday, parents are confused about its implications.

But social activists said they will file a petition in the court on Monday.
If the nursery admissions for 2015-16 academic year follow the 2007 Ganguly Committee guidelines, the schools will get management quota back.

“The private schools will get their autonomy back within the established framework,” said Menu Goswami, Principal of Bal Bharti Public School in Pitampura. “Every school has different ethos and it should have some say in the admission process,” she added. 

Every year over 5,000 applicants apply for 368 seats in nursery classes and  of them 92 are reserved under EWS category, she said.

Parents are confused about the implications of the order. “We don’t know whether this order is final or their will be PILs against the order and the process will be stretched like last year,” said Padma Narayan, who is seeking admission for her four-year-old daughter.

An NGO Social Jurist, which was a party to the case on which the High Court has given order on Friday, said it will file a plea in the court on Monday. “We are going to file a plea as these guidelines can lead to misuse of seats by the private schools,” said Khagesh Jha advocate for Social Jurist.

According to the latest order, the private schools can devise their own mechanism for nursery admissions. “The private unaided schools are constitutionally protected and empowered to govern their institutions. What is the guarantee that these institutions won’t misuse their power by giving points for categories like parent working for any noble cause, children of state/national awardees, defence and navy services, civil services, being vegetarian and parents opting school transport,” said Sumit Vohra founder of www.admissionsnursery.com.

Experts said that the main sufferers will be the first child. “As very few schools give points for first child. Only sibling and alumni will get points if schools continue to give points the same way they gave in the past,” added Vohra.

AAP opposes HC order
Former city education minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia said letting private unaided schools have autonomy will come in the way of ensuring the right of every child to secure admission.

The Aam Aadmi Party government had backed the radical shift in nursery admission guidelines announced by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung last year.

“When we had our government, we made sure that these guidelines were implemented. Just before our government, the guidelines had been formulated on the LG’s instructions. We improved on it and strongly enforced it,” Sisodia said on Friday.

Not happy with the HC’s order, the AAP asked the city administration to file an appeal in the Supreme Court immediately against the HC verdict quashing the government guidelines on nursery admissions.

“Parameters like neighbourhood policy and related topics were debatable and required improvement, but scrapping the entire guidelines will not benefit parents and students,” Sisodia said, adding that education is a right and it cannot be allowed to be left at the mercy of “private managements”.