The race for nursery admissions began in 1400 private schools in the national capital on Monday with parents rushing from pillar to post to secure a seat for their tiny tots in a school of their choice.

The admission process for 298 schools—operating on the land of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA)—will be conducted separately as the guidelines for admission at these schools are still awaited. Admission in these 285 schools, including Delhi Public School and Mount Caramel School, Vasant Kunj, will be conducted through neighbourhood/distance criteria as mentioned in their land allotment lease.

In a first, the Delhi government is issuing two sets of guidelines for admission into nursery classes at Delhi schools. The separate guidelines theory doesn't go down well with the parents as it had sent most of them into a tizzy. "I hope the Delhi government had released both the guidelines together. A common man doesn't know which schools are operating on DDA's land and which aren't," says Shreya Singh, a parent.

"We are receiving lots of queries on our portal regarding the two guidelines system. There is confusion among parents. Government should have issued the guidelines for these 285 schools by now," says Sumit Vohra of admissionsnursery.com.

According to Vohra, out of these 14,00 schools only 700 had uploaded their guidelines online by Monday morning. However, January 1 was the last date set by the Directorate of Education for them. "Parents are confused as many of these schools have not mentioned if the forms are available online or will be given manually," he said, adding several schools that gave physical forms till last year had now switched to an online process of admission.

According to sources in the Delhi government, the file of guidelines and schedule for admission at these 285 schools has been pending at the Lieutenant Governor's office. "The sudden resignation of LG Najeeb Jung has caused the further delay," they said.

Admissions in 1400 private schools began at 8 am on Monday with each school setting their own criteria, even as most of the schools were allotted maximum marks for ''distance", following the direction of the Directorate of Education.

The last date of filling the admission forms is January 23 and the first list of selected students will be published by the schools in February, followed by the second list by February 28.

Important documents to carry

Ration card, voter card, domicile certificate, phone bill, electricity bill and Aadhaar card for residential proof.

A copy of fee/bill of the 2016-17 academic year in case of sibling criteria.

A copy of pass certificate of classes 10 and 12 for alumni criteria