Transfer points for nursery admissions cancelled

With the Lieutenant-Governor assuring the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that nursery admission guidelines will no longer have the additional “five points” allotted to children with a transfer certificate from out of the State – some parents and activists who had alleged that the provision was being misused, had reason to celebrate while those falling in the genuine transfer case category were worried at being put to a disadvantage.

“It is big victory for residents of Delhi who are living here for the past 30-40 years and no one liked the idea from the beginning,” said Sumit Vohra of admissionsnursery.com whose information website had conducted a survey which said that 98 per cent of parents were unhappy with the NCR transfer points.

“While alumni points could be claimed in maximum two schools, transfer cases got additional five points in all schools. This excluded children with 70 points from any consideration in many good schools. Some schools asked for proof of residence up to one year old. In such conditions they may get the advantage of transfer. But beyond that it makes no sense,” said a parent, Tanmay Pandya, while taking the survey.

Another parent Deepak Kalkot said that transfer point were like some loophole where it was very easy for parents to fudge a company's letter head to show a transfer.

As soon as news of the development spread, parents were also worried about whether they would be required to apply in all the schools again. They were also wondering where the “five” points would be allotted next. According to the guidelines released by the Lieutenant-Governor, the admissions are done on a 100-point basis.

Parents had alleged that some of the schools were allowing children from Noida and Gurgaon to be eligible for inter-State transfer for which five points were given. This was to the severe disadvantage of children in Delhi since many of the schools measure distance through the aerial method through which some residential areas in Noida and Gurgaon also get included. Therefore, a child having a transfer certificate from these places would have gotten five points in addition to the 70 points accorded to neighbourhood.

Another manner in which the points were being abused was when parents who worked in any of these satellite towns and commuted to Delhi where they lived, managed a transfer certificate from their workplace and used it for the additional five points.