Nursery admissions to kick off in Delhi from today

NEW DELHI: The nursery admission process for approximately 1,600 private schools in the national capital will begin from Saturday with private schools making their criteria public on Friday. The distance of student's residence from the school, sibling quota, parents being alumni of the school, single child, first child are some of the criteria listed by schools for admissions to the entry-level classes.

According to the schedule released by the Directorate of Education (DoE), the application window will be open from Saturday and the last date of submitting application forms for nursery class admission for 2019-20 session is January 7. The first list of selected children, along with marks secured by them, will be out on February 4. The second list will be out on February 21 and the nursery admission process will conclude on March 31.

Twenty-five per cent seats in pre-school, pre-primary and Class 1 will be reserved for economically weaker sections/disadvantaged groups (EWS/DG). The directorate had instructed all private schools to upload their criteria (with points for each criterion) for admission in open seats, on its official website by December 14. There is, however, no clarity yet on the schedule of EWS admissions. The government has also set an upper age limit of fewer than four years to be eligible for the nursery, less than five years for kindergarten, and less than six years for admission to Class 1. The proposal for an upper age limit was challenged in court last year. Though a Delhi High Court order last year had allowed the imposition of the upper age limit, the DoE had decided that the order will be applicable only from 2019 academic session. Apart from the abolished criteria, the schools have been given autonomy to come up with their own points system.

Earlier, almost half the private schools in the city did not upload details of applicants to open seats at entry-level classes, as well as the points allotted, on the Directorate of Education's website last year. This, despite directives to them to do so. Schools have to upload the admission criteria and the points against each of them for the academic session 2019-2020 by December 14. Admission forms will be made available from December 15.

According to the DoE, schools have been directed to "upload details of children who apply for admission under open seats and points allotted to each of them by the schools under their point system, on the module available on the departmental website" by

January 28, 2019.