In what has come as relief for parents, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal approved the new guidelines for nursery admissions on Saturday.
With this, admissions will begin in the 298 private schools running on Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land. The admission process for the upcoming academic session began on January 2 in over 1,400 private schools in the Capital. However, last week, the government directed 298 private schools to withhold the process until new guidelines were notified.
“The guidelines for nursery admissions to private schools running on DDA land have been approved. These schools will now be able to accept applications,” said a senior Directorate of Education (DoE) official while adding that these guidelines would be notified soon.
“We had sent the proposed guidelines to the L-G’s office for approval, which took time because a new L-G had come in. The guidelines include implementing the criterion of distance between the applicant’s residence and the school for filling 75 per cent of the seats,” the official added.
Details awaited
The city government wanted these schools to admit students solely on the basis of neighbourhood criteria. While the DoE is yet to release a notification in this regard, Education Minister Manish Sisodia did offer some details through his tweets on Saturday. “The 298 private schools running on DDA lands will have to give admission on basis of neighbourhood criteria. These schools will have to give priority to children living within a radius of 1, 3 and 6 kilometres from the school,” he wrote on Twitter.
Neighbourhood criteria
Defining what neighbourhood would mean, the guidelines state that students residing within 1 km of the school will be preferred. If seats are not filled, preference will be given to students residing within 1-3 km of the school. “Students residing beyond 6 kms shall be admitted only if vacancies remain unfilled even after considering all the students within 6 kms area,” state the guidelines.
While allotting land to these 298 schools, the DDA had laid down a condition that they would not deny admission to students on the basis of neighbourhood criteria, which the government has defined, Mr. Sisodia said.
The remaining 1,400 schools in the city, which are free to decide their admission criteria, have been instructed to steer clear of 51 points that were abolished last year. Among these are education of parents, their profession, age, and interviews.
The application process will end on January 23, while the first list of selected candidates — including those on the wait list — will be announced on February 15.
