New Delhi: With the Delhi high court staying yet another AAP government order-this one imposing upper-age limit for nursery admission-and reopening registrations till February 9, schools are forseeing "administrative problems" and parents, immense confusion. Also, with Friday's order, the nursery admission process is now exactly what it was in 2015 barring the few criteria that have had to be dropped.

School authorities had originally supported the government's decision to impose an upper-age limit arguing that it is "scientific." "If the upper-age limit is not defined, then what is the limit? Speaking for the abled children, having kids of different ages can bring emotional, psychological and social problems," says S K Bhattacharya, president, Action Committee for Unaided Recognized Private Schools. He adds that the Delhi School Education Act and Rule 1973 "includes a provision requiring entry into Class I to be at age 5+."

Reopening the registration process, he points out, means new forms (with the changed parameters) and new lists. "We have huge administrative problems ahead," he says.

But schools will implement it. "We can manage," says Ashok Pandey, chairman, National Progressive Schools Conference. "I don't think there'll be many applications in the category. If there are some problems, we'll take them in our stride." In fact, RC Jain of the Delhi State Public Schools Management Association thinks the reopening of admissions-even if it is only for three days-will prevent further litigation. "Now schools will have the opportunity to change the criteria and parents will get another chance. We don't have any problem with this," he says.

Pandey too had initially supported an upper-age limit and described the government circular as "thoughtful."

It had also caused a fair amount of trouble for the parents. Large number of applicants became ineligible and there was also mass confusion about which class-nursery or KG-the kids would be eligible for. Lawyer-activist Khagesh Jha says that the main problem with the policy was "it came as a surprise to parents." "Also, there shouldn't be any strait-jacket. No parent would try to admit a seven-year-old into nursery except in cases where it's actually required," he says.

It also affected, as admissionnursery.com's Sumit Vohra points out, the many children who didn't apply or secure a seat last year. "Last year, some parents did not apply as their children were barely three-too young for a big school, they felt-and there was no upper limit. This year, they weren't eligible. Also, there are very few vacancies in KG and many schools do not make KG vacancies public. Parents were losing sleep worrying their kids will be sitting at home for a year," says Vohra.

But the frequent change in instructions is leading to much confusion. Parents are asking on forums whether they can apply in schools that had rejected their applications before; whether this extends to EWS candidates as well. One irate parent writes, "We can apply to those schools which rejected our application at the time of form-filling itself? I don't think so! The whole system is just a way to harass people. Can't these judgments be passed in time? Will [schools] sending special invites to us for filling the forms?"

The order has also directed the Directorate of Education to make more than five options beyond six kilometres available for applicants into EWS quota. "There can't be any cap on the number of schools to which a parent can apply," says Jha.