In a stunning decision, several schools in the Capital have made it mandatory for parents seeking nursery admission for their children to have Aadhaar cards. This means that parents will now have to procure Aadhaar cards for children, some of whom are as young as three, in some of the 1,400 private schools in the Capital which are gearing up for nursery admission.
According to the guidelines uploaded by some schools which include: Salwan Montessori School, Rajendra Nagar, Laxman Public School, Hauz Khas and NC Jindal School, Rohini, among others, late on Sunday night; an Aadhaar card, issued in the name of the candidate, is mandatory.
The requirement is all the more shocking as the Directorate of Education (DoE), has not mentioned it even in the list of the documents required. Only, the Aadhaar card of parents is mentioned in DoE guidelines as a document for address proof. But despite the DoE’s guidelines, schools increasingly seem to be insisting on the Aadhaar card.
While reputed schools such as Springdales and Delhi Public School Vasant Vihar —have declared the Aadhaar card for the child is an optional document, some parents say this is not the case.
“I went to collect the document for nursery admission to DPS, Vasant Vihar. However, I was turned back as the school clearly asked for a copy of child’s Aadhaar card for registration,” said Rakesh Ranjan, a resident of Vasant Vihar.
Ranjan, who is seeking admission for his three-year-old son, a first child, added: “I called up at least five Aadhaar enrollment centres but I did not get a response from anywhere.” In contrast, some parents said they had submitted the form without their child’s Aadhaar card at DPS, RK Puram.
Some parents also complained that they couldn’t complete their online registration for admission as several schools asked for the candidate’s Aadhaar card number as a mandatory option. “Earlier in the day, I tried filling the online form of Hansraj school, Punjabi Bagh, but I couldn’t submit the form as there was a mandatory option for the candidate’s Aadhaar card number,” said Sumit Awadhiya, a resident of Punjabi Bagh. Awadhiya is seeking admission for his three-and-a-half-year-old son.
According to Sumit Vohra of admissionsnursery.com, hassled parents have thronged their website throughout the day on Monday. “Aadhaar card of children is neither mentioned in DoE guidelines, nor do many parents have it. Now parents are in a dilemma, what if their form gets rejected if they apply without an Aadhaar card number? This is a disaster as they cannot apply twice at the same school,” he said.
“DoE should immediately instruct all schools to remove this clause where an Aadhaar card is mandatory. To get an Aadhaar card requires a minimum of two-three weeks,” he added.
NBT 3 Jan
