NEW DELHI: Four days to the beginning of nursery admission process, and parents still have no clarity on guidelines and where to apply. Most parents are primarily worried about the delay in release of guidelines for schools on public land, and how it will affect their process in the remaining private, unaided schools. They claim the schedule released by Directorate of Education (DoE) for the private, unaided schools is very hectic, giving them very little time.

Working parents are primarily worried about the parallel schedules for private, unaided schools and schools on public land. Parents said that they were waiting for the schedules for the 285 schools on public land. "A majority of my 15 shortlisted schools in the area are still waiting for a schedule and guidelines, and I am unsure where to apply" said Pooja Kumar, a mother of a three-year-old.

She has booked a seat for her child in a school in Indirapuram, but is not sure how long the school will wait. "If the guidelines delay the admission, we will have to go for the Indirapuram school."

Parents living on the fringes of the city are also in a quandary. Ankita Mehra, a parent living in east Delhi, said admissions for schools in the rest of NCR started much in advance, reducing options. "Their processes are about to close. I can't apply to schools in Noida even if I want," she said.

Rakesh Mehra, a parent living in south Delhi, said the administration was to be blamed as it put off the issues that were also raised last year.

Meanwhile, parents are also dreading the stress that the hectic schedule will bring. Madhur Parakh, an engineer at TCS who resides in Maharani Bagh, is concerned about the timings of form filling and advance deposit. "Many schools do not have online application facility and have a fixed time from 9am to 12pm. I can't take leaves to go stand in queues in each school," she said.

Another parent, who did not wish to be identified, told TOI that she was also facing a shortage of time. "All schools want demand drafts, for which I will have to spend time in banks. It is difficult to stand in both bank and school queues in the little time we have," she said. Parakh suggests all schools should have online admission facilities, including document verification.

However, the release of next set of guidelines is nowhere in sight. "The director of education is out of town right now, and there only a few days before the admissions start," said S K Bhattacharya, the president of Action Committee of all India associations of public schools.