Separate nursery guidelines for 298 private school will confuse parents

This year, the government has put on hold the admission process at the 298 private schools built on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land. The government wants these schools to admit students only with neighbourhood/distance as the criteria.

The representatives of private schools in Delhi told the government that having two different nursery guidelines will cause confusion among parents. The school representatives said this in a meeting convened by the Director Education, Saumya Gupta, on Wednesday.

Separate guidelines for private schools, those unaided and those built on DDA land, will cause confusion among the parents. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT Photo)

This year, the government has put on hold the admission process at the 298 private schools built on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land. The government wants these schools to admit students only with neighbourhood/distance as the criteria. Schools like Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, Vasant Valley, Sanskriti School are included in these 298 schools.

The admissions at the rest 1,400 schools started on January 2 and will continue till January 23.

“It was a good discussion and the director is extremely democratic in her dealings. We told her that as far as possible the guidelines for the private school should be similar,” said Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal, Springdales School, Pusa Road, and former chairman of National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC). The NPSC is a consortium of 100 big schools in the city.

During the discussion, most representatives said due to unequal distribution of schools in the city, neighbourhood cannot be a sole criteria for admission.

“There are areas like Dwarka, Rohini where there are a large number of schools. So schools have to admit students from different parts of Delhi. With neighbourhood as the only criteria, it is going to be extremely difficult,” said a principal of a renowned school in Dwarka.

Schools suggested to the government that after fixing the 10-15km distance, they could allot percentage points to siblings, girl child, alumni and single parents.

“If one set of schools are allowed to follow this criteria then why is there a different set of rules for the rest. We have asked the government to consider more options like siblings,” said SK Bhattacharya, chairperson of the Action Committee, an umbrella body of private schools.

An official of the Directorate of Education said that the suggestions from school will be taken into account and guidelines issued soon.

Activists working in the field of education say that the government should not delay the issuing of guidelines.

“It is just about implementing a court order. I don’t know why the government is wasting time holding such meetings? Due to this delay, parents have been suffering a lot,” said Khagesh Jha, lawyer and member of NGO Social Jurist.