‘Schools will have to upload their admission criteria by 17 February and applications will begin on 18 February’.
New Delhi: The Delhi government on Monday directed all its district education officers to provide information regarding the seats available for general and reserved categories in entry-level classes—nursery, KG, and Class 1—in all private schools across the capital. The Directorate of Education (DoE) issued the notification days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government will soon begin the nursery admission process in private schools. The centralised process for the hugely competitive nursery admission process which usually commences in November or December, has been delayed due to the pandemic.
The DoE asked all deputy directors of education (DDEs) in the capital to provide an updated list of all private unaided recognized schools in Delhi, the correct GPS coordinates of all the schools categorized by jurisdiction, and information regarding EWS/DG category seats at the entry-level classes.
“All district DDEs are hereby directed to get the above exercise completed by 15 February so that further necessary action can be taken to start the online admission process for the next academic session…,” the notification read.
The principals of various schools, as well as parents in Delhi, have welcomed this move.
Alka Kapur, Principal, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi told The Sunday Guardian: “The Directorate of Education has issued detailed guidelines regarding the online admission process for nursery. We, as an educational institution that respects and honours the decision of the Directorate, will follow the same guidelines and conduct our admission process accordingly. The Directorate has already thought things through and given appropriate directions; so, there isn’t much to improvise while conducting the admissions. The only thing that has been left solely to the jurisdiction of schools is the responsibility of devising a fair, reasonable, and unbiased admission procedure. At MPS, we’ll be conducting the admissions via a lottery system as it is the most suitable procedure of admission for nursery.”
In December last year, Delhi government officials had said that a proposal to scrap nursery admissions is being considered as the schools have been closed for nine months due to Covid-19 and will remain closed till a vaccine is available. A whole year of online learning for small children seems unviable, they had said. But school principals had opposed this idea. However, last month, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had ruled out scrapping nursery admissions.
According to the latest notification, schools will have to upload their admission criteria by 17 February and applications will begin on 18 February. The last date for parents to submit forms to schools is 4 March. The first list of selected children will be published on 20 March, and the second list on 25 March. All schools are required to reserve 22% of their seats in entry-level classes for economically weaker section/disadvantaged (EWS/DG) category students and 3% for children with special needs (CWSN). Admission to these is conducted through a centralized process of draw of lots by the DoE. A separate schedule for this will be released by the DoE later.
Several parents told The Sunday Guardian that they are relieved with the announcements as they have been inquiring about the admissions since November.
Rakesh Bhatt, who is seeking to enrol his three-year-old son, told The Sunday Guardian: “We were scared when we heard that the government is thinking about scrapping the nursery admissions this year. Now, as the admission process is about to begin, we are relieved.”