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It’s official, no nursery forms before Dec 15

New Delhi: The directorate of education (DoE) has issued guidelines for nursery admissions this year, making it compulsory for schools not to start the sale of application forms before December 15.
According to the DoE circular dated October 28, the ‘‘commencement of availability of admission application forms’’ should start on December 15 with the last date for receipt of forms being January 15, 2010. The entire admission process should be
over by March 31, 2010.
Unlike last year, DoE has given a month for the sale and submission of forms this time. However, the new guidelines say that schools may have their own schedules within the given timeframe but no school will be allowed to ‘‘deviate from the date of commencement and closure of admission process’’. According to DoE, a uniform schedule for all schools will make it convenient for the parents. The directorate wants schools to inform it about any deviation in their schedule by November 15.
Though quite a few schools have already started giving out forms, DoE officials say that action will be taken against them only if they receive a complaint. Said a senior DoE official, ‘‘No school is allowed to start the process before the stipulated date. We haven’t yet taken action against any school as we did not receive any complaint. But we will look into the matter if any deviation is brought to our notice.’’Bal Bharati Public School (BBPS) at Ganga Ram Hospital (GRH) Marg, Rohini and Dwarka have already started the online registration of forms and have decided to continue with the procedure as of now. L V Sehgal, principal, BBPS at GRH Marg and vice-chairperson, National Progressive Schools Conference, said, ‘‘Since we had started the registrations before the guidelines were issued, we will continue with the process. If need be, we will write to the education director explaining our position.’’ The school has opened the registration process from October 26 to November 6.Some schools see the new guidelines as a violation of the Supreme Court order on nursery admissions. S K Bhattacharya, chairperson, School Action Committee has even written to the education director on the matter. He said, ‘‘According to a clause of the SC order, schools can make their own schedule duly ratified by the managing committee. Schools just need to inform the DoE about their schedule. Why does DoE then try and interpret new things to confuse principals and parents?’’

Most parents, however, seem to be more relaxed after the new guidelines. Sumeet Vohra, who runs a nursery admission forum for parents called www.admissionsnursery.com, said, ‘‘From the parents views posted on the forum, it seems some parents are worried about too much running around during that stipulated period.’’ He added, ‘‘But otherwise, most are happy as the chances of missing any school’s dates for sale of forms will now be minimal. They can now concentrate better on their work and prepare for the admission procedure in advance.’’