Parents say they will be forced to send their kids to far-off schools if neighbourhood criterion is ignored. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT file)

Some of the schools in Delhi are not giving any points for neighbourhood criterion for nursery admissions under the general category making it difficult for many parents to make it to the list.

At Apeejay School, Saket and Apeejay School Pitampura there are 10 criteria, including alumni, girl child and first child, based on which applicants are being allotted points.

Some schools are also allotting points to applicants whose parents or grandparents are doctors, civil servants, armed forces, martyrs and diplomatic corps. Though these criteria are discriminatory, DoE officials said they haven’t decided to take an action yet as the schools have autonomy to fix their criteria.

Most of the schools have kept distance as one of the main criterion while allotting points for nursery admissions. According to Ganguly Committee Report on nursery admissions, children living in the neighbourhood should be given priority in admissions.

At Modern School, Vasant Vihar and Raghubir Singh Junior Model School there are no points for neighbourhood criterion. Both the schools have given 40 points each for general category.

“If schools don’t give points to applicants living in the area then parents will be forced to send kids to far-off schools,” said Pankaj Malhotra, father of a 3-year-old.

However, schools maintained they are not flouting any rules. Principal Apeejay Pitampura, DK Bedi, said that there is no compulsion on the schools to follow the distance criteria. “People use the criteria for all the wrong reasons and to their own advantage... The applicants give false documents to deceive the school and I don’t see any logic in the criteria,” he said.

Directorate of Education had recently asked schools to adopt clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent criteria for admissions.

“Many schools have given 20-50 points to neighbourhood which is the main criteria. Some schools have not allocated a single point to neighbourhood that means parents staying in that area won’t have any scope of admission as all the criteria are discriminatory points,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs an online portal on nursery admissions.

The Hindu

Schools giving points to ‘discriminatory’ criteria like profession of parents

• Kritika Sharma Sebastian

Imagine your child not getting admission to nursery class at a prestigious private school in your neighbourhood just because you are a not a doctor or a civil services officer?

While most parents rely on the “distance” criterion for admission to entry-level classes for their children, some schools in the Capital that are not giving any weightage to the “neighbourhood” criterion this year. Instead, they are giving points to “discriminatory” criteria like profession of parents. The neighbourhood criterion, the most common criteria across all schools that was given due weightage as per the Ganguly Committee recommendations to simplify and fine tune the admission process to nursery class, does not find a place in the admission criteria to prominent schools in the Capital, including Apeejay School in Saket and Pitampura, and Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School in Humayun Road.

According to the admission forms of these schools, the criteria listed include alumni, girl child and parents’ job. Apeejay School has allotted 12 points for children whose parents or grandparents are qualified doctors, government servants or in the Armed forces. Similarly, RSJ Modern School is giving points for siblings and alumni for three generations.

The Directorate of Education (DoE) had recently asked schools to develop and adopt clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent criteria for admissions.

A senior DoE official added: “We left it up to the schools to decide the criteria for admission. However, if we receive any complaints about schools coming up with discriminatory criteria, we will look into it.”

Sumit Vohra, who runs a nursery admission portal, said: “The schools that have not allocated points for the neighbourhood criteria are not following the Ganguly Committee recommendations for nursery admissions, especially Apeejay School, which is also screening applicants based on very discriminatory points.”

“The criteria are also being allotted for the creamy layer based on profession, which can easily give way to backdoor entry. Even Modern school has not given any points to distance and dynasty rule is being forced as points to alumni/to three or more generation alumni are given,” he added.

“Is anyone from the Directorate of Education even keeping a check on whether admissions from any other ways are happening or not,” he asked.

Another education activist said: “Allotting points on the basis of a parent’s job is very discriminatory. Schools should keep the most basic kind of criteria for admission like neighbourhood, sibling and others.”

The schools, however, do not find anything wrong with this criteria and maintained that they are following all norms. Apeejay School (Pitampura) principal D.K. Bedi said: “We have followed all the norms while deciding the criteria for admission. The Ganguly committee recommendations were put in place to make the admission more systematic, but are not mandatory and hence it is not necessary to include the distance criteria.” He added that sometimes parents take advantage of the neighbourhood criteria and get fake rental agreements made just to secure an admission for their children.

The nursery admission process for 27,000 seats in Delhi schools started on January 1 and will go on till March 31. While the last date of submitting the application forms is January 22, the first list will be out on February 22 followed by another on February 29.

Statesman

Anxious parents apply at multiple schools

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| New Delhi | 06 January, 2016

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With the nursery admission process in the Capital is on full swing, parents seem apprehensive amid the speculations about the minimum cut-off points, which could secure admission to their wards. Many parents are opting for as many schools as possible as they don't want to miss any opportunity and are considering it as a method which would increase the probability of their children getting admitted.

"This will increase the chances of my child getting admission in at-least one of the schools I have applied for, as we cannot afford to lose a year," said father of a general category student maintaining anonymity. Some general category parents alleged that due to reservation of seats for other categories and allocation of extra points for the staff and other categories, the chances of their wards getting admitted are already marred. Moreover, there is also a state of chaos among the parents regarding the lottery system as the schools have been assigned certain autonomy in conducting the draw of lots and it's not mandatory for them to videograph the whole process.

As per DoE directives, the schools are granted autonomy and they can refrain from videography and restrain even the parents from participating or witnessing the draw of lots based on their convenience. Education activists say that points allotted are school specific and vary from school to school for the same set of criteria. "It's hard to predict a cut-off or a benchmark accurately because different schools allot different points for the same criterion, however those who are able to secure 50 points or above shall be considered to be in the safe zone," said Sumit Vohra of admissionnursery.com.

Moreover, activist and parents also alleged that lottery system should be made more transparent by making the videography and parents' presence mandatory. "The school will get a chance to be partial or indulged in corrupt practices and there will be no fair draw if videography is not done and parents are restricted from witnessing the whole episode of draw" said Sumit Vohra.

Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/delhi/anxious-parents-apply-at-mul...