Chaos reigns on Day I of nursery admissions

Hassled parents thronged the sought-after city schools for nursery admissions on Monday but many had to return disappointed as several schools are still waiting for the Directorate of Education (DoE) guidelines in this matter. As many as 298 private schools operating on the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land have not yet received admission guidelines from the government.

Several schools in east Delhi did not even issue the admission forms. For instance, Ahlcon International School, Ahlcon Public School, ASN Senior Secondary School, and ASN International School did not issue the forms. Others, such as Aster Public School and Rishab Public School in Mayur Vihar Phase I, did issue the forms.

Unaware of the technicalities, many parents visited the schools but were turned away by the authorities. “We started visiting the schools early in the morning. But everywhere we went, we were told that the admission process has not yet started because the school is operating on the DDA land. We, and many other parents, did not have any clue about all this,” said Shakuntala, who is on a lookout for admission forms for her son Yuvan.

A guard at the Ahlcon International School said: “As many as 300-400 parents have come for the forms since morning. But they all had to return.” Ashok Pandey, the Principal of the school, said: “I wish all the guidelines had come together. Now the process will run on two tracks. When some schools start the admission process, others will be on the verge of completion. This would also affect the choices of the parents, who will have to make do with limited options.”

Dejected parents could be seen going from one school to the other. Some, such as Mother Mary’s School in east Delhi, issued online forms, adding to the confusion and woes of the parents.

“I think the forms should have been made available offline as well. One tends to get over-confident and make mistakes while filling the form. Many of my friends said their kids could not get through last year because they made minor mistakes in the form,” said Jyoti, a resident of Pandav Nagar, who hopped from one school to the other to get form for her daughter Riddhima.

“Many of the parents are not tech-savvy and do not know how to fill the forms online. This increases the chances of making errors,” said another parent. At many schools, parents got to know about the online forms only after they reached the school. At others, serpentine queues could be seen at the form counters.

The government’s different sets of rules for different schools and the autonomy given to some to decide their own admission guidelines confused the parents as well as the authorities to no end.

“This is even more confusing. Now, before applying, we will have to look at every criterion and collect several documents that some schools have made mandatory for application,” said Naren Gupta, a parent, who had come to the Indian School located in south Delhi’s Sadiq Nagar area.

The nursery admissions started on Monday, with 1,400 schools offering seats. The last date of filling the admission forms is January 23 and the first list of selected students will be displayed in February, followed by the second list in February end.

“The Delhi government is bringing its own rules, defying the Rule 145 of the Delhi School Admission Act-1973, which states that the Principal has complete authority to self regulate the admission process,” said SK Bhattacharya, Chairman of the Action Committee for Private and Unaided Recognised Schools.