Schools free to set upper age limit

The Delhi government has backtracked on its decision to set an upper age limit for admission to nursery ahead of the admission season.

The Delhi government has backtracked on its decision to set an upper age limit for admission to nursery ahead of the admission season.

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In a meeting of the Delhi School Education Advisory Board held on Thursday, the prior order to fix the upper age limit at 3 years 11 months and 30 days was withdrawn. This order was passed on December 19.

The withdrawal of the order means that schools are free to set their own upper age limit if they want, just like they did last year. The minimum age limit, however, will have to be maintained at 3+. The directorate of education has promised action against any school that violates this guideline.

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"After we passed the order on upper age limit last week, we received a number of representations from schools saying that the order has come very late in the day and that the management committees have already made the decisions that they had to. The order has been withdrawn as of now but we will revisit it for the next admission season," said Amit Singla, director, Education.

Schools and parents, meanwhile, are happy with the status quo. "The earlier order was passed too late and schools were having a problem complying as most of us had brought our prospectuses and uploaded the attendance scheme on the websites," said MS Rawat, member of the advisory board and general secretary of Federation of Private Schools, Delhi.

Parents, too, have heaved a sigh of relief as the earlier order left out a lot of children who couldn't get admission in nursery last year.

"There are a number of parents whose children could not get admission last year and the previous order was disastrous for them as it meant that their children would have to take admission in KG where the number of seats is few. There should be a gap of at least two years between the minimum and the maximum age for admissions like it is in Kendriya Vidyalayas. Also, the admission in KG should be more transparent," said Sumit Vohra, founder, admissionsnursery.com.