The nursery admissions, which is fast turning out to be a never-ending “saga”, has been stayed again by the Supreme Court. The “new” guidelines which were released on December 18 by the Lieutenant-Governor have undergone several amendments and litigations, which have been perpetuated by different parent and activist groups. The end result is that all the stakeholders are angry and fed-up.
“Neither the parents nor the school managements deserve this. Parents have been going from pillar-to-post trying to get their children into school. The guidelines have been changed so much and every time we go ahead with admitting children something else comes up and we have to start again. The fault is not with anyone except for the Directorate of Education which released the guidelines in a hurried manner without taking any of our views, without even consulting educationalists like us,” said Ms. Ameeta Wattal, Springdales principal and chairperson of the National Progressive School Conference, an organisation of most private schools in the city.
Parents were also a tired and frustrated lot. “I have submitted the fee, bought the uniforms and books today. Now what do I do? Some highly educated people are making a joke of everything,” said Mukesh Shokeen, a parent.
“Litigation after litigation is playing with the potential future of several kids,” said another frustrated parent, Anshul Kwatra.
Some, tired by the constant back-and-forth, said it was a good thing that the Supreme Court had taken up the issue. “This is the third time nursery admissions have been stayed in the last two months. There have been more than 15 notifications from the DoE. The ball is now in the Supreme Court, so whatever decision comes will be final and binding on all without further scope of public interest litigations on this issue,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs the information service admissionsnursery.com .
The Directorate of Education had earlier this month released guidelines ordering all private schools across the city to complete admissions for nursery by April 9 and begin classes by April 15. It held valid all the draw of lots conducted while banning any new draw of lots, following the High Court's order, lifting its stay on the admission process.
“We were expecting this, any new guideline is always placing some children at a disadvantage. The DoE needs to clean up this mess,” added Ms. Wattal.
