WHAT NEXT
Pvt schools to seek stay on nursery rules
To Move HC Today, Likely To Delay Admission
Shreya Roy Chowdhury TNN
New Delhi: The nursery admissions issue is far from settled. All representations and meetings having failed; the matter is now going back to court.
A private, unaided school body will be filing a petition in high court on January 3 seeking a stay on the December 18 guidelines issued on the order of the lieutenant governor of Delhi Najeeb Jung. The nursery admission guidelines—received positively by most parents and negatively by nearly every school—abolished management quota and fixed both parameters and points distribution for them.
There is a chance of the case resulting in further delay in the admission process—already beginning 15 days later than usual—but school bodies “don’t mind”. “Friday, we will be filing our plea in high court. We are asking HC to stay the impugned order of the lieutenant governor of December 18, 2013,” says S K Bhattacharya, president, Action Committee for Unaided Recognized Private Schools, an umbrella body to which most school associations belong. “This is a very serious issue. We are concerned about the autonomy of private schools,” he says.
Statements made by the new education minister, Manish Sisodia, have not been encouraging but private school associations are hoping to meet him all the same. Representations to Jung had resulted only in the change in definition of ‘neighbourhood’—the sixkilometre radius became an 8km one.
Another set of schools group gearing up for courtroom battle is Christian schools. “I will go to court,” says Sister Nirmalini, principal, Carmel Convent School. “Our issues are different.” Minority schools are not under Right to Education Act 2009 and are, therefore, under no obligation to reserve 25% seats for economically weaker sections.
Jung’s December 18 order says, “Those minority schools which have been allotted land by government agencies shall have to admit children belonging to EWS category to the extent of 20% at entry level and provide free-ship to them till completion of their school education.” When members of the Delhi Catholic Schools Association spoke up in protest, the Directorate of Education issued a further notification on behalf of the LG on December 30 repeating the point.
PIONEER`3 JAN
Nursery admission: Absence of clarity in alumni, transfer worries parents
They allege manipulation of parameters by some private schools
With nursery admissions nearing in the Capital, the confusion continues to haunt parents. After the controversy on neighbourhood criterion, new loopholes have been highlighted in the order on admission guidelines issued by the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi. Parents have raised concern over no clarity on the eligibility for the criteria of alumni and transfer because of lack of definition of these parameters.
Sumit Vohra, activist and founder of admissionsnursery.com, in a letter to the Directorate of Education, alleged manipulation of parameters by some private schools due to lack of clarification in the guidelines about the eligibility for Alumni and Transfer case.
“In my letter to the Directorate of Education (DoE) I have requested to formulate common rules for alumni and transfer case criteria because these will have a huge impact on the destiny of the child,” said Vohra, who explained, “Some schools are awarding five points of alumni to parents if they have studied for just one year in the school, while some have mentioned that it is mandatory for either parent to have studied for a minimum of five years or have completed either Xth or XIIth from the school. This will give undue advantage to some parents who have changed several schools as they would be able to secure position in more than one school, while prove as a drawback for those parents who have studied in one school all their life. The DoE should define the eligibility of this criterion.”
Another criterion of admission in case of inter-state transfer of parents, which was made to benefit those parents who have been transferred from a new place to the Capital, also lacks clarity. “It was introduced by the Ganguly Committee to counter the alumni and sibling parameters because transferred parents cannot bank on these factors but schools are expected to manipulate this point too,” said Vohra, adding that a clarification was required on the date of transfer of parents to make them eligible for gaining points on this factor.
Meanwhile, the action committee of private schools is likely to file a petition in the High Court on Friday, challenging the December 18 order of the L-G, which took away autonomy from the schools in fixing points for various parameters. “There are plenty of flaws in the guidelines which we have questioned, including scrapping of management quota, no autonomy to schools in deciding the points for parameters, lack of definition of parameters etc,” said SK Bhattacharya, Chairman, Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools.
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