on Friday.
According to the new guidelines, admissions will continue to be done on the 100-point basis but children living within an 8 km radius will now be included in the “neighbourhood,” criteria which carries 70 points. Grandchildren of staff members will also be entitled to a five per cent quota which was earlier extended only to the children.
In the guidelines released on December 18, admissions into nursery schools had to be done only on the basis of four criteria like, “neighbourhood up to 6 km (now increased to eight), sibling studying in the school, parent alumni in the school and inter-transfer case.” The Right to Education Act has been extended to these admissions.
“The parents we interviewed were especially upset of the short distance of the neighbourhood measured since there are many pockets in Delhi which do not have schools. Also, siblings who were in a school and admitted with a further distance were also at a disadvantage,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs the admissionsnursery.com
The school managements were also upset at the neighbourhood criteria while the NGO which had initially challenged the earlier criteria in the Court felt that the fears of schools were unfounded since there were enough schools in the city, according to their survey. They too, however welcomed the change: “It still emphasises the fixed criteria and the management quota still remains scrapped, so we welcome it,” said Khagesh Jha, an activist of the NGO.
The total number of seats for admission to a class for children below six will still be divided into four parts. Out of this, 25 per cent of the seats have to be reserved for the economically weaker section and disadvantaged group, five per cent for the wards and grandchildren of the staff/ employees of the school. The unfilled seats will spill over to open seats. Five per cent will be for the girls’ quota which will have to be divided according to a draw of lots for girls residing within a 6 km radius. In the event that seats remain vacant or unfilled through these quotas, then they can be allotted based on the draw of lots.
Times of India
NEW DELHI: Anu Khatri's son will now get the 70 'neighbourhood' points; She'd been missing out for half-a-kilometer. After all the meetings and representations, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, relented only on one point -the radius for neighbourhood is now eight kilometers instead of six. Points allocated to neighbourhood are still 70. And grandchildren are now eligible for the 5% staff quota. There is no other modification to the December 18 guidelines. Management quota still stands abolished; points distribution is also the same as is the 5% girls' quota. Considering the reaction of school bodies, parents can now look forward to more litigation. But the change has brought Khatri's son within the 'neighbourhood.' Staying in Vaishali, Ahlcon International and Ahlcon Public Schools were between 6.5 and 7 km from home. "I am so relieved!" says Khatri, "I had zero points, now it's 70." Another parent, based in Defence Colony has also found her options expand considerably to include several central Delhi schools. "It will help those on the city side," says a Chhattarpur parent, "It doesn't really help me. Schools I'm interested in are still about nine kilometers from home. But two kilometers will make a lot of difference." She adds resignedly, "Actually no guideline will please everyone." Along with the amendments to the order, Jung also issued a statement explaining why certain changes were made and some suggestions rejected. The distance was increased, he said, because parents had "identified specific school/schools" but "any further increase would vitiate the concept of neighbourhood schools and increase travel time for small children considerably." Parents hope schools will choose the 'aerial' mode of measuring eight kilometers. Another parent, based in Alaknanda, fears that expansion will make lotteries difficult. "Even for the 5% girls' quota, there'll be many more candidates and massive lotteries," he observes. Sumit Vohra of admissionsnursery.com fears exactly that. "The Directorate of Education should make strict guidelines. If dates of list-declaration clash, there'll be a problem," he says. About the change for the staff-quota, schools are asking wondering whose grandchildren will be eligible. "Will the grandchildren of all the teachers who have retired from here be part of the pool for this quota," asks a teacher from one of the older schools On management quota Jung statement says, "There is no review of the management quota. There is possibility of misuse of this quota and this cannot be accepted in a society that seeks to provide equal opportunity in education for all that includes the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. The intent is to ensure to the maximum extent possible that admission for children would be in a transparent and fair manner." He also clarifies that the 5% girls' quota doesn't mean they won't be able to apply for the open seats and kids with disabilities are already covered by the 25% EWS quota and don't need points. Navbharat Times -28 DEC
एडमिशन नर्सरी डॉट कॉम के फाउंडर सुमित वोहरा ने भी डिस्टेंस लिमिट को लेकर सर्वे किया था और ज्यादातर पैरंट्स ने डिस्टेंस लिमिट 6 से बढ़ाकर 10 किमी किए जाने की मांग की थी। …
of teachers, students, classrooms, library and laboratory facilities.
delhi Updated: Apr 06, 2018 09:13 IST
Heena Kausar Hindustan Times, New Delhi
The entry point for school education in the Delhi is nursery admission, which is a highly competitive process with most parents in the city struggling to secure a seat in a few schools of their choice.
For the first time ever, the Delhi government has decided to grade around 5,600 schools in the city on the basis of the infrastructure they possess and academic facilities they offer.
The government has enlisted the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) to assess each government, private, and municipal school on three primary criteria — safety, teaching-learning facilities, community engagement in case of government and municipal schools and social inclusion in case of private schools.
DCPCR is the statutory body to monitor implementation of rights of children and the Right To Education Act, 2009 in the city. The evaluation and grading fram-ework will be ready by May-end.
It is also in the process of developing software to conduct the exercise. The evaluation process will begin in August and the grades of the schools will be announced on Children’s Day, November 14, which parents will be able to access on a website.
The exercise, which was announced by deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia in the Delhi government’s budget, will help parents choose a school for their wards based on hard information and not merely rely on public perception of an institute. Delhi has 5,800 recognised schools, but 200 of them are minority schools which will not be graded as they do not fall under the RTE.
“As of now parents have to rely on general perception while choosing a school. They go by the look of school building and perception of the school in their friend’s circle. But now we will give them credible information on every aspect of the school. It will also help the government in fixing responsibility in cases of shortcomings by school and concerned departments,” said Anurag Kundu, member, DCPCR.
The entry point for school education in the city is nursery admission, which is a highly competitive process with most parents in the city struggling to secure a seat in a few schools of their choice.
The grading decision comes in the backdrop of incidents of violence in schools in recent years such as murder of a schoolboy in a Gurgaon school, the rape of a minor girl by a school attendant in Delhi, and the death of a student by who fell into a septic tank in school.
“We will enquire if the school has conducted background check of its employees and if it conducts workshops on sexual safety or not. Similarly, under fire safety, we will check if schools have fire-extinguishers and if the fire extinguishers are working and finally if the school conducts mock drills or not,” said Kundu. He said the grading will not be in comparison to other schools and that each school will be graded on various parameters. “We are working on what the grades and sub-grades will be like,” he said.
To evaluate schools on the teaching-learning parameters, the institutes will be asked to submit information on the number of teachers, students, classrooms, library and laboratory facilities. The DCPCR will then conduct inspections and surveys to cross- check the information.
“Let’s say the school claims to have ten computers; we will check how many of those computers work and if students are able to use it or not,” Kundu said.
The third parameter is different for private schools and government schools. In case of government schools, they will be evaluated on effective functioning of school management committees and parent-teacher meetings. “For private schools, we will speak to parents and students from the economically weaker section (EWS) category and find out if the school gives them free books and uniforms, how are students treated by teachers and if there are any problems they face,” he said.
The project will cover over 1,100 schools run by the government, 1,900 schools run by municipal bodies, 1,700 private, unaided schools recognised by the government and 900 private schools recognized by municipal bodies.
Shyama Chona, former principal of the RK Puram branch of Delhi Public School, welcomed the move.
“If parents can see the grades a school has in each category then they can make informed decision based on what facilities they need most. Many parents in government schools are not aware of standards but by this grading they will know of standards and can demand the same from schools,” she said.
Some are sceptical about the exercise and suspect that it may end up promoting some schools that will get better grades.
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riterion is ignored. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT file)
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Some of the schools in Delhi are not giving any points for neighbourhood criterion for nursery admissions under the general category making it difficult for many parents to make it to the list.
At Apeejay School, Saket and Apeejay School Pitampura there are 10 criteria, including alumni, girl child and first child, based on which applicants are being allotted points.
Some schools are also allotting points to applicants whose parents or grandparents are doctors, civil servants, armed forces, martyrs and diplomatic corps. Though these criteria are discriminatory, DoE officials said they haven’t decided to take an action yet as the schools have autonomy to fix their criteria.
Most of the schools have kept distance as one of the main criterion while allotting points for nursery admissions. According to Ganguly Committee Report on nursery admissions, children living in the neighbourhood should be given priority in admissions.
At Modern School, Vasant Vihar and Raghubir Singh Junior Model School there are no points for neighbourhood criterion. Both the schools have given 40 points each for general category.
“If schools don’t give points to applicants living in the area then parents will be forced to send kids to far-off schools,” said Pankaj Malhotra, father of a 3-year-old.
However, schools maintained they are not flouting any rules. Principal Apeejay Pitampura, DK Bedi, said that there is no compulsion on the schools to follow the distance criteria. “People use the criteria for all the wrong reasons and to their own advantage... The applicants give false documents to deceive the school and I don’t see any logic in the criteria,” he said.
Directorate of Education had recently asked schools to adopt clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent criteria for admissions.
“Many schools have given 20-50 points to neighbourhood which is the main criteria. Some schools have not allocated a single point to neighbourhood that means parents staying in that area won’t have any scope of admission as all the criteria are discriminatory points,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs an online portal on nursery admissions.
The Hindu
Schools giving points to ‘discriminatory’ criteria like profession of parents
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The nursery admission process for 27,000 seats in Delhi schools started on January 1 and will go on till March 31.— File Photo
No place for neighbourhood criteria in some schools
Imagine your child not getting admission to nursery class at a prestigious private school in your neighbourhood just because you are a not a doctor or a civil services officer?
While most parents rely on the “distance” criterion for admission to entry-level classes for their children, some schools in the Capital that are not giving any weightage to the “neighbourhood” criterion this year. Instead, they are giving points to “discriminatory” criteria like profession of parents. The neighbourhood criterion, the most common criteria across all schools that was given due weightage as per the Ganguly Committee recommendations to simplify and fine tune the admission process to nursery class, does not find a place in the admission criteria to prominent schools in the Capital, including Apeejay School in Saket and Pitampura, and Raghubir Singh Junior Modern School in Humayun Road.
According to the admission forms of these schools, the criteria listed include alumni, girl child and parents’ job. Apeejay School has allotted 12 points for children whose parents or grandparents are qualified doctors, government servants or in the Armed forces. Similarly, RSJ Modern School is giving points for siblings and alumni for three generations.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) had recently asked schools to develop and adopt clear, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent criteria for admissions.
A senior DoE official added: “We left it up to the schools to decide the criteria for admission. However, if we receive any complaints about schools coming up with discriminatory criteria, we will look into it.”
Sumit Vohra, who runs a nursery admission portal, said: “The schools that have not allocated points for the neighbourhood criteria are not following the Ganguly Committee recommendations for nursery admissions, especially Apeejay School, which is also screening applicants based on very discriminatory points.”
“The criteria are also being allotted for the creamy layer based on profession, which can easily give way to backdoor entry. Even Modern school has not given any points to distance and dynasty rule is being forced as points to alumni/to three or more generation alumni are given,” he added.
“Is anyone from the Directorate of Education even keeping a check on whether admissions from any other ways are happening or not,” he asked.
Another education activist said: “Allotting points on the basis of a parent’s job is very discriminatory. Schools should keep the most basic kind of criteria for admission like neighbourhood, sibling and others.”
The schools, however, do not find anything wrong with this criteria and maintained that they are following all norms. Apeejay School (Pitampura) principal D.K. Bedi said: “We have followed all the norms while deciding the criteria for admission. The Ganguly committee recommendations were put in place to make the admission more systematic, but are not mandatory and hence it is not necessary to include the distance criteria.” He added that sometimes parents take advantage of the neighbourhood criteria and get fake rental agreements made just to secure an admission for their children.
The nursery admission process for 27,000 seats in Delhi schools started on January 1 and will go on till March 31. While the last date of submitting the application forms is January 22, the first list will be out on February 22 followed by another on February 29.
Statesman
Anxious parents apply at multiple schools
Abhinav Singh/SNS
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With the nursery admission process in the Capital is on full swing, parents seem apprehensive amid the speculations about the minimum cut-off points, which could secure admission to their wards. Many parents are opting for as many schools as possible as they don't want to miss any opportunity and are considering it as a method which would increase the probability of their children getting admitted.
"This will increase the chances of my child getting admission in at-least one of the schools I have applied for, as we cannot afford to lose a year," said father of a general category student maintaining anonymity. Some general category parents alleged that due to reservation of seats for other categories and allocation of extra points for the staff and other categories, the chances of their wards getting admitted are already marred. Moreover, there is also a state of chaos among the parents regarding the lottery system as the schools have been assigned certain autonomy in conducting the draw of lots and it's not mandatory for them to videograph the whole process.
As per DoE directives, the schools are granted autonomy and they can refrain from videography and restrain even the parents from participating or witnessing the draw of lots based on their convenience. Education activists say that points allotted are school specific and vary from school to school for the same set of criteria. "It's hard to predict a cut-off or a benchmark accurately because different schools allot different points for the same criterion, however those who are able to secure 50 points or above shall be considered to be in the safe zone," said Sumit Vohra of admissionnursery.com.
Moreover, activist and parents also alleged that lottery system should be made more transparent by making the videography and parents' presence mandatory. "The school will get a chance to be partial or indulged in corrupt practices and there will be no fair draw if videography is not done and parents are restricted from witnessing the whole episode of draw" said Sumit Vohra.
Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/delhi/anxious-parents-apply-at-multiple-schools/114835.html#wsFcbQzjZdLwGVIb.99…
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But there is something which I would like to share with you parents which, I feel is very important whenever we send our kids from preschool to major school or home to school & therefore request all of you to go through the same & decide if its beneficial for all of us :
Three Keys to Quality Education in the Early Years
School/Family Partnerships
In preschool and elementary school, and even beyond, one of the essentials for creating effective learning environments is a strong partnership between the schools and families. Parents need to be involved in their child's education in order for their child to succeed. Why? Because if parents show that they care about schooling, children are more likely to value it themselves. Some parents help in classrooms, some are on school boards, some help by monitoring homework closely and giving their child learning experiences at home such as trips to the library. We don't know yet which activities matter the most, and why; we don't fully understand why some parents can be mobilized to become involved and others are more resistant (though I am working on finding answers to these questions at this very moment). But we do know that some kind of involvement makes a big difference for children. And we have very encouraging evidence that when schools design strong, multi-faceted parent outreach and involvement activities, low-income parents do become highly involved in their children's education, with benefits to both math and reading achievement.
We also know that some parents very much want to be involved, but just don't have the time and the energy after working long hours to make ends meet. Wouldn't it be wonderful if parents could get just 2 hours a month to spend in their child's classroom? A flexible employer might allow them to make it up by cutting a few minutes from lunchtime. Just a few minutes off of each lunch period in a month would allow Mom or Dad to take a son or daughter to school a morning a month and stay for a while to see first hand what the child's school life is like and talk to teachers informally. The cost is negligible but the benefits would be enormous.
But parents' working isn't the only obstacle to a strong school/family partnership. Teachers need to learn how to work with parents, how to reach out to those from different cultural backgrounds, how to schedule and structure outreach opportunities for maximal effect. In our teacher-training program at New York University we actually teach a course on working with parents. According to one survey, we are among only 4% of educators who offer such a course. Only 37% of professors devote even one class period to family outreach. And when teachers themselves were asked, over 86% of them said that they need this kind of training. Public schools and schools of education need to be encouraged to partner in addressing these training needs.
Promoting academic and social-emotional competence
A second "essential" for educational excellence is integrating supports for children's academic and social-emotional competence. These dimensions of competence shouldn't compete with one another for "air time" in a school day. A child who is going to grow up and be elected to Congress one day clearly needs to function well in both of these areas. In fact, an over-emphasis on academic training, especially with very young children, may actually backfire and impede academic progress. For children of all ages, getting along with peers and being able to follow the rules of the classroom helps the child feel part of the school community and hence, more eager to be involved in school learning activities.
But attending to social/emotional development doesn't mean that academics are ignored. I'm working with implementing a preschool curriculum to teach young children how to resolve conflicts, handle daily frustrations, and increase their ability to manage social situations (She's got the ball that I want and she's bigger than I am, what shall I say to her to get me access to the ball without making her mad.). The point of the curriculum is social/emotional and behavioral competence. The means for achieving those are literacy activities such as role playing, puppet play and crafts activities - the very same activities that promote language and cognitive skills. But in order to blend this curriculum into the school day, teachers have to be trained. They will eventually be able to use issues that come up in any lesson, whether counting to 10 or learning the days of the week, to advance children's ability to keep control of their own emotions, and react competently when other kids don't. These sorts of lessons not only make it easier for children to succeed in school, but also help children succeed in the real world because theses skills help them to initiate and maintain friendships and to work well with others.
Continuity
The last critical factor for launching children onto the path of educational excellence is continuity. What we mean by continuity is creating smooth transitions from one level of schooling to the next, from preschool to kindergarten, for example. When transitions aren't managed well, children suffer. Problems may be academic, social/emotional or behavioral; many children have more than one adjustment difficulty. Children from minority groups are vastly over-represented among those who are labeled as "maladjusted."
Going from a preschool that has an unstructured classroom with several adults for a small group of children and few demands for things like sitting in a circle, lining up to go to lunch, or tracing the letters of the alphabet, to an equally excellent kindergarten classroom that differs on all of these dimensions, can cause culture shock for children and families alike. Parents are warmly welcomed in preschool and childcare settings. They often help to maintain or support the center, though admittedly many working parents do not have the freedom on the job needed to spend an hour helping out in the classroom. These settings are community based and more likely than public school to duplicate the child's home culture and values. The language is more likely to be the child's home language, the holidays celebrated will be familiar, and the attitudes toward child rearing will more likely be similar to those at home.
So moving to kindergarten means that the child has to deal with new rules and ways of operating and the parent can't help because they are similarly suffering from the culture clash. The homework assignments get tougher and tougher. Parents who didn't like school very much the first time around won't be eager to help their child with book reading contests. Others who work long hours to meet a minimal living standard might be interested in reading with their children but are literally too tired to keep their eyes open when they finally get home and sit down on the couch.
Programs themselves need to be better aligned so that children don't have to be re-socialized every time that enter a new school, or new grade level. Work in a Brooklyn school district on revising the curriculum to align with new standards led to new opportunities for collaboration among teachers, a renewed sense of commitment to the whole task of educating a the whole child, and to schools in which the learning of one grade leads smoothly into the offerings in the next. Current policies that encourage such alignment and related professional development for school staff should be monitored and vigorously reinforced.
Summary
Prevention is so much more efficient that paying the price for fixing lives that a marred by poor reading skills, ignorance about how to behave on a job interview, or a striking inability to control one's impulses. In bits and pieces, we have the knowledge to erase this grim outcome for thousands more children. These pieces have to be arranged though, by the concerted will to be committed to educational excellence and all that it takes to achieve that goal. We need educational leaders who will partner with knowledgeable researchers to create school, family, and community partnerships that are unceasing in their energetic pursuit of the deletion of disadvantage and the achievement of high standards by all.
Thanks.…
Added by V R Harihar at 2:26pm on September 26, 2013