GURGAON: Many city parents seem to be already in a fix over the minimum age when their tiny tots should start their schooling, though the process for nursery admission for the next academic year is yet to begin.

This is because there is a mismatch in the age limit for nursery admission in Delhi and Gurgaon schools. While the minimum age for admission to nursery classes in Delhi is three years, many schools in the Millenium City, such as the Delhi Public School (DPS), have set three-and-a-half years as the age limit.

This is because nursery admissions in the national capital are regulated by the directorate of education (DoE), which has set the minimum age limit. Whereas there is no such school regulator in Gurgaon, which lets Gurgaon schools frame their own rules.

Many parents who seek their wards' entry to a reputed school in Gurgaon are now left with only one question: "What is the age limit - three or three-and-a-half years?"

Rajat Yadav is one such worried parent. Though his son, born in February 2011, would be eligible for admission to nursery class in any Delhi school, he may not get a seat in many prominent schools in Gurgaon.

"Schools like DPS in Sushant Lok and Sector 45 have set the minimum age criterion for admission to nursery class at three-and-a-half years," he says.

The city schools, meanwhile, have no particular reasons, when asked about setting the age limit for nursery admission at three-and-a-half years. "Delhi has a mandate of minimum age criterion of three years in their schools, which is not there in Gurgaon. So, we have kept the minimum age limit at three-and-a-half years," Sunita Nagpal, vice principal of Delhi Public School, Sushant Lok, told TOI.

However, some city schools like Amity International School and GD Goenka Public School in Sector 48, follow the Delhi rule. "As there are no specific rules in Gurgaon, we found it reasonable to follow the Delhi rules," says Neha Verma, admissions in-charge of GD Goenka Public School at Sector 48.

Sumit Vohra, the founder of a portal representing the parent community, says that some schools discourage nursery admissions to children before they turn three-and-a-half years as they want their pre-schools to be occupied by such children. "I wonder why can't all schools in Gurgaon follow the age criterion of three years as in Delhi?" he asks.