The new guidelines in place for nursery admissions, set to start in Delhi this week, is confusing parents with twin children.
Until last year, first-born twins fell in the ‘first child’ criteria and if one of the twins was selected, the other was accepted by default in the school. However, this year, in keeping with the new guidelines, there is no criteria for ‘first child’.
“There isn’t even any column on the admission form to mention that applicants are twin siblings, as per the admission criteria available online,” said Sonu Goyal, who has three-year-old twins. Even though the West Patel Nagar resident has a choice to admit his sons in three schools in his catchment area, the admission process is too ambiguous as the guidelines fails to clarify what parents who have twin children are supposed to do.
The new guidelines work on a points system; applicants get five points if a family member is an alumni of the school, 20 points if they have a sibling in the school, 70 points if they reside within a school’s six-kilometer radius catchment and five for interstate transfer.
Under the new guidelines, schools have no management quota but 25 per cent seats are reserved for children from economically-weaker sections, 5 per cent seats for girls residing in a six-kilometer radius and 5 per cent seats for staff students. The guidelines are being contested in court by private schools.
Sumit Vohra, of admissionnursery.com, said that until last year the criteria was different and twins fell in the first child category. Vohra has written to the Directorate of Education, pointing out the ambiguity regarding twins as well as highlighting discrepancies of the lottery system and age criteria in the new guidelines.
Terming the lottery system as dubious, Goyal said: “There is no transparency in the lottery system. The process is opaque and akin to a hide-and-seek activity. We only get to see the list of those selected.”
