New rules for nursery admissions

Sonia Sarkar / TNN / Oct 28, 2007, 01:24 IST

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Parents planning to put their kids in pre-primary school could be in for a rough ride this year.

NEW DELHI: Parents planning to put their kids in pre-primary school could be in for a rough ride this year. Not only the confusion still reigning over the fate of Ganguly committee recommendations, the Delhi government too has joined the fray by proposing its own set of guidelines to make the admissions process more ‘‘transparent’’.
In a report, to be placed before the Delhi High Court on November 7, just a few weeks before the admission session begins, the government, contrary to Ganguly committee recommendations, has proposed that schools should not prefer admissions on the account of parent’s educational qualification, alumni status and sibling factor.
State government earlier submitted an affidavit on September 14 arguing against the 100-point Ganguly Committee report on pre-primary admissions and sought more autonomy for schools but it was rejected by the HC. The court at that time had asked for a detailed report from the government over its stance.
Since then, the government is consulting the city schools, and has planned to do away the three parameters for school admissions proposed by Ganguly committee.

‘‘Because educational qualification of parents for admissions is not accepted by most schools, giving preference to kids of alumni is seen as an elitist concept and admitting siblings of current students is not feasible as it can affect the heterogeneous mix of the classroom, the three proposed parameters would not be considered in the admission process,’’ said a senior government official.
In its affidavit, the government had stated ‘‘the autonomy granted to the heads of private unaided recognised schools as per rule 145 of Delhi School Education Act (DSEA) has to be protected.’’

‘‘Each school should be allowed to define and adopt its own admission criteria and marking scheme from out of a set of parameters so that their autonomy as given under Rule 145 of Delhi School Education Act (DSEA) is ensured,’’ the government noted in its affidavit.
Sources said the latest set of criteria being prepared by the government would not assign any points to suggested parameters. ‘‘Though neighbourhood policy would be the most common parameter for admission, we won’t specify any limits on the kilometres. Schools will decide about admissions their own depending on which areas they could cater to. At the same time, we would ask schools to prefer kids from disadvantaged sections of the society,’’ said the official. He also said there would be no interview or interaction with kids.
The official added: ‘‘we won’t lay out strict criteria to follow but the framework would be suggested to ensure a fair admission process.’’
Parameters proposed by Ganguly committee included neighbourhood policy, sibling factor, educational qualification of parents and alumni status. But after a hue and cry by schools and parents, the committee reduced points for siblings, educational qualification of parents, and alumni status and increased points on neighbourhood policy. The revised formula which was submitted by the committee to the court in July, also gave preference to the poor sections of the society.
sonia.sarkar@timesgroup.com

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