Nursery admissions in over 1,700 private unaided recognised schools is expected to begin from January 1 next year with the Delhi government likely to bring out the admission notification before December 15.
The admission process for entry-level classes this year is going to be same as last year, with the only change being imposition of an upper age limit for applicants. For admission to nursery class, the upper age limit will be four years with a one-year relaxation for children with special needs, an official said.
“We will bring out the notification by December 15 after which the application forms will be available from January 1. Unless there is a major change, we are going to follow this schedule,” an official from the directorate of education (DoE) said.
Nursery admissions in Delhi usually start in first week of January and applications forms are closed by the end of the month.
As reported by Hindustan Times earlier, the Delhi government is not likely to make any changes to the criteria for nursery admissions, allowing private unaided schools to decide the guidelines on their own.
“The only change this year is the imposition of an upper age limit. Kids of age between 3-4 years will be eligible for Nursery, between 4-5 years for KG, and 5-6 years for Class 1,” the official said.
In December 2015, the DoE imposed an upper age limit for entry-level admissions but the decision was stayed by the high court, after which admissions last year took place without an upper age limit.
“But the court in October upheld our decision to implement the age limit. The upper age is calculated as on March 31 of the year in which admission is sought,” the official said.
In the previous academic session, the government issued guidelines that had made distance the primary criterion for admissions in 289 schools built on government land, but the HC put a stay on the order.
As things stand, the distance criterion carries maximum points in most schools. The radius of the distance differs from school to school. Other criteria include girl child, sibling in the same school, children of alumni and students with a single parent. A hundred points are divided among these criteria.
However, the official said all schools will have to abide by the government’s order that had abolished 51 criteria considered “discriminatory”. These include oral tests, interviews, achievement of parents, non-smoking parents, and vegetarian parents.
Delhi has 1,700 private schools that offer approximately 1.25 lakh seats in nursery classes.
