Uncertainty over centralised form in nursery admissions

A question mark looms large over the introduction of centralised nursery admission forms for students belonging to the general category.

A question mark looms large over the introduction of centralised nursery admission forms for students belonging to the general category.

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While schools in Delhi are awaiting guidelines for the upcoming nursery admissions, the Delhi government’s education department is yet to decide whether or not to introduce centralised forms this admission season.

“We had an interaction with some school principals, wherein among other things, the principals gave us their feedback. We are working on the centralised admission form for the general category as of now. Nothing has been finalised as yet and the picture will be clearer only by next week after which we will issue the guidelines,” said a senior Delhi government official.

However, a centralised form is not the only change that has been proposed. The education department had said in October that orphans would also be included under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category from this year and schools will be given one specific date to issue centralised forms for the EWS category and another date to conduct the lottery process.

Schools however, are unhappy with not just the pace at which policies are being executed, but the introduction of a centralised form, which, they say will take away from their individuality.

“It will take away the autonomy of schools because we can’t be clubbed with government schools. The centralised forms will also make the entire points system redundant. Every school has a different perspective and a different point for the various criteria. There is no point reinventing everything and every guideline every year. It just causes anxiety and panic among parents,” said Ameeta Wattal, vice chairperson, National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC) While the nursery admission procedure is likely to begin by the second week of January, schools maintained that the last minute rush to alter the procedure had begun to put additional pressure on schools since this was a time that schools had to also grapple with the pressure of conducting pre-board and board examinations.