Parents worried as nursery admission rules not yet out

With the city government failing to give the Delhi high court a justification on the nursery admission age criteria, parents these days are a worried lot, as it has delayed the release of admission guidelines. Mallica Joshi reports.

With the city government failing to give the Delhi high court a justification on the nursery admission age criteria, parents these days are a worried lot, as it has delayed the release of admission guidelines.

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Anxiously waiting for the guidelines that are yet to be released, parents have strongly objected to having points for alumni in the admission process. Calling it a ploy to discriminate on the basis of income and family background, they are demanding the removal of this criterion.

“Since the regulations in nursery admissions are fairly new, schools were able to admit children as and how they liked. This resulted in screening on the basis of financial and educational backgrounds of families. Giving admission on the basis of alumni ensures that these considerations are brought into play once more,” said Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionnursery.com, a portal on nursery admissions in the city that has 35,000 parents as members.

In the past, schools have awarded as many as 30 points out of 100 for alumni, almost wiping out the possibility of kids of non-alumni to get admission.

“If points for educational qualification and income are unfair, so are those for alumni as they help indicate both these criteria,” said Ganagdeep Kaur Saini, another parent.

But there is little hope that the guidelines would be changed this year. “The guidelines are going to be the same. We cannot make new guidelines every year,” said a senior official at the Delhi education department.