Parents await clarity, pleas on quota before High Court

A day after two petitions were filed in the Delhi High Court against the government’s decision to scrap management and all other quotas, confusion prevails among parents and schools alike.

While the date of hearing is on January 18, some of the schools have already started changing their criteria and scrapping quotas.

At a camp for answering queries organised at a school in Pitampura, the questions ranged from schools changing points after the government’s decision to some completely stopping the process till a final verdict is out.

The Delhi government had on January 6, in the middle of the admission process, scrapped all quotas, including management, and 62 ‘arbitrary’ criteria. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also warned the violating schools of being taken over by the education department.

On Friday, two separate petitions were filed in the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the decision. Both urged the court to intervene as the admission process is on. One of them is listed to be heard on January 18.

“I had filled the nursery forms keeping various points in mind. For example, I was sure of securing admission for my child in one of the schools which had most points for neighbourhood criteria, other than reserving seats for management quota. But after the scrapping of quota, the school has brought out various other criterions and distributed the points. Should I fill more forms now,” asked a parent at the camp at P P International School.

The two-day camp has been organised by education activist Sumit Vohra, also the founder of admissionsnursery.com.

“There is a lot of confusion after the government’s decision and more after the petition in the High Court. Earlier, it was only a speculation that schools will go to court as many had started changing their criteria. But now some schools have stopped answering our queries and are saying any decision will be taken after January 18,” said Parul Sethi, seeking admission for her three-year-old daughter.

“Now it all depends on the court verdict. It is unlikely that the court will scrap management quota, as we have seen in the past. Since there is a lot of uncertainty and the process could get extended, my only advice to parents is to fill as many forms as possible to secure admissions for their wards,” said Sumit Vohra.