Parents of tiny tots should brace for the admission season as the nursery admission guidelines will be announced this week.

The guidelines will accommodate more changes this year, children expected to get points only for living close to the school and having a sibling in school. Points for children of alumni and for parents transferred to the city are not expected to be in the guidelines this year.

“It seems like the government has decided to do away with the alumni points all together this year. This will come as good news for parents who have migrated to Delhi,” said Khagesh Jha, who is a member of NGO Social Jurist.

Final changes in the guidelines were made over the last two weeks and they were vetted and signed by the Lieutenant Governor (LG) last week. Officials at the directorate of education confirmed that the guidelines will come out this week. Last year, the guidelines came out in the third week of December. 

New guidelines

This year’s guidelines will be sparse. Only two criteria are expected to determine who gets in — distance from school and sibling. Children who live within an eight kilometre radius of a school will have a chance to get admission. Those children whose siblings also study in the same school are expected to make it for sure. The distance criterion was the same last year as well. A number of parents (AdmissionsNursery.com ) had written to the directorate, requesting it to increase the limit from 8 kilometres to 15 kilometres. The same demand has risen this year as well.

“Parents want the distance to be increased to 15 kilometres at least. In many localities such as  Sonia Vihar, Dabri, Khichripur and Chhatarpur  etc don’t have good schools within the prescribed radius,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs the popular portal, admissionsnursery.com.

What is new?

Last year, the discretionary 20% management quota was abolished. This year, the government is likely to reintroduce the provision, albeit with a number of riders.
 
“The management seats may only be for children of members of the management committee. The number of these seats will be small and they will not be discretionary,” said Jha.  Centralised process for children with special needs The directorate will also have a centralised application process for children with special needs as mandated by the High Court. The court had directed the directorate to reserve 3% seats in schools that have the ability to cater to differently-abled children. The directorate will identify such schools to parents and the application process for these will be centralised.