Delhi Govt leaves private schools free to set norms for 75% seats
December 16, 2010 5:06:48 AM

Staff Reporter | New Delhi

‘Leave 25% for poor in nursery admissions’

It is going to be the return of ills like capitation fee through backdoor in nursery admissions in the Capital. Releasing Delhi Government guidelines for admission following the passage of Right to Education (RTE) Act, Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely on Wednesday issued guidelines, which withdraw all checks imposed on schools after prolonged court battles by parents and social bodies over the years.

Releasing the much-awaited guidelines, Lovely at a media briefing said, “Schools are free to frame their own criteria for different categories in conformity with the guidelines, but they will have to inform the Directorate of Education till December 31 about the details of such criteria and give publicity to the same criteria.” Lovely added that the admission process would begin from January 1, 2011 and it shall be completed by March 31. Ironically, while announcing the withdrawal of Government supervision, Lovely said, “For the convenience of children and parents, the admission process should be more simple and transparent”.

According to the guidelines of DoE, “the categorisation of the applicants should be on the basis of criteria, developed in terms of the objectives of the school and can include siblings, transfer case, single, parent and alumni”. Last year it was mandatory for all private schools to include in their parameters criteria like neighbourhood (distance), single parent, transfer case, siblings and alumni, whereas this year they have been given the liberty of their choice.

Lovely said, “Random means to provide equal opportunity to all”. But parents in the national Capital are still left wondering over terms like, ‘random’ and ‘objectives of the school’. JS Rajput, former Director of National Council of Educational Research and Training said, “The Government has succumbed to the intention (pressure) of the schools. ‘Objectives of the school’ will be interpreted by each public school in its own way. Just because Government officials get their children admitted in public schools, they have given such a vague description to allow discretion to school management.” Rajput added that the objectives of all schools should be same.

On the other hand, school managements went gaga over the guidelines making promises of maintaining accountability. Amita Wattal, Principal of Springdales Pusa Road said, “The guidelines have given a certain autonomy to public schools which is very important. The guidelines are satisfactory.” Wattal added the schools should retain their accountability and transparency while fixing their criteria. Similarly, Anju Mehrotra, Principal of Kalka Public School said, “This is what we wanted. We are very happy. We will retain a similar system like point system in our school”. Mehrotra added that basic categories on which the students would be admitted will be siblings, neighbourhood or distance and alumni.

Schools have been given the flexibility to set their own categories on which marks or stars will be awarded to the child during admission. Delhi Government, however, made it clear that the age criteria of three plus, as last year, would remain the same and the management quota that schools can give would be a maximum 20 per cent. Lovely said, “Students who would not fall in any category, a minimum of 20 per cent seats would be kept for them and they would be selected on a lottery/random basis.”

Sumit Vohra, founder of nursery admissions.com, a forum for parents to express their queries said, “We are happy that lottery system has not been implemented but we are dissatisfied with the guidelines on the whole.

Parents are totally confused. The Government has left everything on the schools.” Vohra added that categories like neighbourhood, or the distance of the school, should have been made mandatory”.

The Minister said 25 per cent of total seats will have to be reserved for students belonging to Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) as per RTE Act and rest of the seats would be open to general category students. The selection of these 25 per cent can be ‘random’ or schools can set up their own categories. For admission to the remaining 75 per cent of seats, the Minister said, “The categorisation of applicants in terms of the objectives of the school should be on a rational, reasonable and just basis”. Lovely added that there should be no profiling of the child based on educational qualifications and income group of parents.

The guidelines state, “There shall be no testing and interviews for any parent/child falling within or outside the categories, and selection would be on a random basis”. Announcing the broad guidelines, Lovely said, “each private school will be free to frame its guidelines and eligibility criteria for admission in nursery classes provided they follow the broad contours of the Right to Education Act”. Lovely said the decision to allow private schools to frame guidelines was taken after the Union HRD Ministry suggested the same that schools are free to identify any category based on principles that are fair, just and reasonable and fall within the RTE Act.