With the first notification for Delhi nursery admissions round the corner, several parents have chosen to err on the side of caution and have blocked seats for their wards in schools of neighbouring Noida and Ghaziabad areas.
Ashish Gupta, a resident of east Delhi's Preet Vihar, is among those parents who are seeking admission for their first child and do not have a clear idea about the process. "I'm seeking admission for my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter in a good Delhi-based school. But I don't want to take any chance, which is why I have blocked a seat in a Noida school," he said.
Unlike schools in Delhi, there are no admission guidelines for private schools in Noida and Ghaziabad. "In the last one month, a lot of parents from Delhi have written us to inquire about the availability of seats in our school," said Rajeev Katiyal, Country Manager at the Global Indian International School in Noida, where admissions will remain open till March next year.
Every year, most private schools in Noida admit 20-30 per cent students from Delhi, he added.
The admission process in Noida and Ghaziabad generally ends in December, even as several private schools continue the process till mid-January. Now, with no clarity on nursery admissions in the national Capital, parents from various parts of Delhi are keeping an eye on schools in NCR.
"We don't have any good school in our locality and the Delhi government is constantly pushing for 'neighbourhood' as the major criterion for nursery admission. This is really worrying us. So, we have blocked a seat in a Ghaziabad school," said Madhav Rastogi, a resident of east Delhi's Vasundhara Enclave area, who is seeking admission for his three-year-old son.
The procedure for nursery admissions for the upcoming session are likely to begin from January 1, 2017. "Getting admission in a good Delhi school is getting tougher by the year. Some parents don't want to take a chance.
They then block seats in Noida and Gurgaon schools, and later, if they get a seat in the school of their choice in Delhi, they forfeit the blocked seat," said Sumit Vohra, Founder of nurseryadmissions.com.
Recently, the Delhi government had drafted a set of guidelines for this year's nursery admissions and sent it to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung for approval.
On Monday, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia made it clear to private schools operating on Delhi government land that they will have to follow the 'neighbourhood'criterion for admissions, with the minimum distance being 1 kilometre.
