New Delhi: With just a month left for the beginning of nursery admissions in Delhi and the mad rush for it started gathering momentum, there is apprehension among the parents that the new season would be chaotic as the government is unlikely to make any major changes in its fresh guidelines.

The last season was full of chaos and controversies as many schools had started their admission process ahead of schedule with a delayed notification from the Directorate of Education (DoE) adding more confusion to both parents and authorities.

With the Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh recently hinting that there will be no changes in the guidelines, expected to be notified by this month-end, parents and experts believe the problems they faced last year will revisit this time too.

Last year, the guidelines had given schools the room to formulate their own set of criteria for admission. This included points for having one’s sibling in the same school, being the child of an alumnus, first girl child and kids living in school neighbourhood among others.

“If DoE comes with unchanged guidelines this year, it will leave parents in lurch like the previous year,” he told PTI.

Arati Jain, who had failed to seek admission for her son last year, says, “I am apprehensive that I may not succeed in getting my son’s admission this time too if the procedures are going to be remain the same.”

“My child doesn’t fall in the categories such as sibling, alumni or first girl child. If schools are going to give maximum points on these heads, my son’s chances seem very bleak. I wish there should be some changes this time,” says Jain, a resident of Connaught Place.

Mansi Malhotra, who also failed to get admission for her ward last year, says unless the point system is redesigned in a more practical way, the problems will remain there and haunt parents every year.

Vohra says, “This haphazard and un-systematic point system would give rise to more frustration and corruption.” However, principal of Ahlcon International School in Mayur Vihar, Ashok Pandey, differs and says these said categories are the core ones of the whole admission process.

“I don’t think the government will ever try to tinker with these categories,” he says.

On the issue of increasing a child’s age of admission to four years, he says, “It sounds practical”.

Ameeta M Wattal, Principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road, also thinks the minimum age for admission should be increased. “Age is certainly a factor which needs to be looked at,” she says.

Three-year-olds, many of whom are not even toilet-trained, are currently eligible for admission into nursery. An NGO, Social Jurist, had recently filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court, appealing to increase the minimum age for admission in nursery to four years. The court has sought a reply from the government on this by November 23.

“We are very optimistic about the outcome of the hearing. If it goes in our favour, it will prevent thousands of small kids from joining the annual race of nursery admission,” says Ashok Agarwal, who filed the PIL on behalf of the NGO.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/delhi/nursery-admission-blues-hit-parents-in-delhi_743195.html