Nursery, kindergarten and class 1 admissions in Delhi schools to begin on Nov 28

The admission process for entry level classes—nursery, kindergarten and class 1— in around 1,700 private, unaided and recognised schools across the city for the

The admission process for entry level classes—nursery, kindergarten and class 1— in around 1,700 private, unaided and recognised schools across the city for the 2020-21 academic session will begin from November 28, 15 days earlier than last year.

HT Image

The Directorate of Education (DoE) on Wednesday issued a circular for admission in the 75% general category entry-level seats available in the private unaided and recognised schools in Delhi according to which the forms will be available on the websites of schools from November 29. Last year, the sale of forms started on December 15.

The schedule for the remaining 25% seats reserved for the economically weaker section (EWS) and disadvantaged (DG) categories will be announced in the coming weeks, officials said.

Explaining the reason behind starting the process early this year, Yogesh Pratap, deputy director of education (Private Schools branch) said, “The decision was taken in order to complete the admission process of general category students at the earliest so that the EWS/DG admissions will not get delayed. The schools keep on delaying EWS/DG admissions as long as their general category seats are not filled.”

Parents, this year, will get an almost one month window to fill the forms as the last date for the form submission is December 27.

The first list of selected candidates will be uploaded by the school websites on January 24, 2020. The second list will be released on February 12, 2020 and subsequent lists (if required) will be released on March 6, 2020. The admission process will be closed on March 16, 2020.

Sumit Vohra, who runs a nursery admission portal, said that the decision of giving a month’s time to submit forms will help parents to arrange all documents. “Earlier, the parents were given 15 to 17 days to fill the forms. There will be fewer chances of mistakes and the parents will also have enough time to get the required certificates done,” he said.

The upper-age limit fixed by the DoE last year will remain in place. The DoE had fixed an upper age limit of 4, 5 and 6 years as on March 31, 20120, for admission in nursery, kindergarten (KG) and Class 1, respectively. The minimum age for admission in these classes is 3, 4 and 5 years as of March 31, 2020 respectively.

Schools have also been given autonomy to decide their own criteria for admission, and upload them on DoE’s website by November 28. But the directorate warned schools not to include 62 listed criteria that were abolished by the Delhi government in 2016, including parents’ education, profession, income, food habits, extra-points for first born child and written or oral interviews of both students and parents.

The department also warned schools not to fix their entry level seats as less than the highest number of seats in these classes during the last three academic sessions. “It’s again decided to avoid less EWS/ DG admissions in schools. 25% of the total seats available in the class are reserved for the EWS/DG students,” a DoE official said.

The department will also set up grievance redressal and monitoring cells in all districts to ensure “transparent” admission process. The parents can take up their queries with these cells between January 27 and February 3, 2020.