City schools are preparing to face the rush of applicants as admission to nursery classes is set to open Tuesday. And going by the previous year’s statistics, the rush is expected to be huge.

In January 2012, there were over 50 applicants for each seat in the general category. This number is astounding considering that the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) receives approximately 61 applications per seat and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has 57 applying for each seat.

The applications at these premier institutes, however, come in from across the country. For nursery admission in city schools, close to 53 candidates applied for each seat from Delhi alone.

The fight is not so close in the economically weaker sections (EWS) category, however, as the introduction of orphans under the disadvantaged groups may narrow the ratio this year.

Surveys on various admission websites and blogs around the year have suggested that most, if not all parents, are unhappy with the present admission process. But no major changes have been brought about by the government.

In a fresh move, the Delhi School Education Advisory Board, in a meeting last Thursday, had suggested an upper age limit for nursery admission. But this will not be applicable for session 2013-14.

Delhi Education Minister Kiran Walia said since the admission cycle was about to begin, the age-related guidelines should not be tinkered with at this late stage “as it would lead to a lot of confusion”.

The board also decided to form a committee to look into the age limit for nursery admission for 2014-2015.

The advisory board meeting saw concerns being raised around fixing the upper age limit for admission of children in pre-school, pre-primary and Class I.

In an earlier meeting, the advisory board had decided that for pre-school, the child should not be more than three years, 11 months and 30 days old, as on March 30 of the start of academic year in which the admission is sought.

Even though a notification on the matter had not been issued, the news had caused considerable panic among parents who could not get their child admitted to the school of their choice last year and were hoping to do so this year.

Amid demands to review both the minimum and maximum age limit with regard to the Right to Education Act, 2009, (RTE) the meeting also saw some schools stating that the minimum age for nursery admission should be raised to three-and-a-half or four years.

According to a survey on admission guidance blog admissionsnursery.com, of the more than 2,100 parents who took the survey, 53.2 per cent said only neighbourhood criterion should be considered for admission to nursery.

Only 4.2 per cent said the alumni criterion should be considered for admission.

Many schools in Delhi and NCR provide 15 to 30 points out of 100 to children of alumni. Many parents and experts believe that this leads to “indirect screening” of children.

With 25 per cent seats reserved for those under the EWS and disadvantaged groups category, under the RTE, schools have been allowed to formulate their own categories for admission in general category.

According to another survey conducted on the same website, nearly 50 per cent parents wanted a new system for nursery admission.

Parents feel that a centralised admission procedure “in which the whole process is handled by the Directorate of Education, or another independent agency, and a common admission form” would be the ideal way to go about it.

The idea of such a centralised admission form was met with criticism from schools in Delhi. Private-unaided schools under an umbrella body called the “Action Committee” approached the Education department in November against the possible introduction of common admission forms for general category students applying to nursery.

The committee, comprising principals and representatives of at least 130 schools, met the Director, Education, Amit Singla, and refused to accept any such move as the concept “interfered with the schools’ set procedure.”

Principal of Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan, Jyoti Bose said since all parents may not have the technology required to complete all formalities of admission online, schools will witness long queues.

“Our form is online but submissions will happen at the schools because there’s a lot of attachments that go with the forms. Everyone may not have scanners and printers to meet admission formalities,” Bose said.

Headmistress of the Junior Modern School Manju Rajput said taking the process online helps in cutting crowds at schools and the government’s allotted time of 15 days would be sufficient for the parents to collect and submit forms.

Govt: Grievance redressal system in the pipeline

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Naveed Iqbal : New Delhi, Tue Jan 01 2013, 23:32 hrs

Delhi’s Minister of Education Kiran Walia said the government wants to set up a grievance redressal system for nursery admission. “We are thinking about setting up a mechanism to address grievances of parents and schools because sometimes there are genuine concerns and we would like to take them up,” Walia said.

The minister said the move was part of her plans and not driven by demand from stakeholders. “I thought of this measure, but we could not implement it last year,” she said.

Comparing nursery admission to the college admission process in Delhi, Walia said parents should look beyond the top schools and apply in more than four schools to increase their children’s chances of securing admission. “Parents tell us that they couldn’t get admission in any school and that they usually apply only in a few good schools. Other schools in many areas of Delhi are also good and parents should consider applying in as many schools as possible,” she said.

Unlike last year, the Directorate of Education (DoE) will not allow schools to bring about any changes to the admission schedule as notified on December 13, 2012. According to the minister, the reason for this is to avoid confusion. She said the department had received complaints about forms being given out beyond the scheduled dates and that it was one of the reasons for the move.

According to the notification, the admission procedure commences on January 1, 2013. Sale of forms begins the same day and will continue for 15 days.

The last date for form submission is January 15 and that for displaying lists of selected candidates under all categories is February 15. The admission procedure will end on March 30, after which the DoE will take vacant seats into account.

On the possibility of involving parents in the debate on upper age limit for nursery admission in the Capital, the minister said, “I want to facilitate a dialogue with parents to see how this issue can be addressed.”

The minister said she will “definitely take it up with the Central government”, to see if any uniformity can be brought on fixing the age for entry level in schools across the country.

She said it is her personal belief that three years is “too young” for a child to start attending formal school and that they should not “rush into it”.

“I have had discussions with psychologists and experts and I believe that to begin schooling at four years is better than three,” Walia said.