NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will not be issuing nursery admission guidelines before the high court pronounces its judgment and that's not coming before December 1. The "nursery tamasha", as many connected with it have started calling the process of admission, has begun again.

Last year, the LG's fixing of criteria for admissions precipitated a massive bout of litigation with schools, parents, activists and the government getting involved. It had pushed the process that's usually wrapped up by February to May.

Najeeb Jung had found himself saddled with the unsavoury task as a result of a previous batch of court cases.

With the matter more or less constantly in court since 2010, there is a constant uncertainty about guidelines.

"The matter should've never gone to court because we are all on the same side. We just want the best for our kids," says Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal, Springdales School (Pusa Road) and chairperson, National Progressive Schools Conference. The problem for her, is lack of planning. "The city should be mapped properly, scientifically. We need to know how many children there are in an area and space should be left for schools. Right now there are some areas where there are no schools and some have 15," she explains. She further points out that with government schools not having nursery and KG classes, "the entire pressure is on private institutions." And adding nursery and KG classes to government schools won't help unless the government school system improves drastically. "The number of applicants is increasing but there are very few good schools," she says.

There isn't, of course, any standard for judging schools. Sumit Vohra, who runs a portal for parents to get information on nursery admissions, has a sense of what factors a parent may consider. "They want established schools, prefer a low student-teacher ratio and good crowd (read, "financially solvent"). These days, some also look for new-age teaching methods," he says. Vohra's list of factors is expanding. "Parents even look for swimming pools, robotics clubs, cricket and tennis academies and horse riding are also a factor."

Wattal holds the media at least partly responsible for parents' perceptions. "There are lists ranking schools but these are perpetual myths," she says, "But parents get hooked onto these."

"Every school is same as per the law," observes lawyer-activist Khagesh Jha. "The problem is that everyone wants seats in the few schools that are perceived to be good and then these start marketing their brand. There is no gap between demand and supply if all schools are considered," he says.

Jha also believes the right of the child isn't in the picture. "Parents send children to far off schools even if it means they have to sleep for two hours on the bus. And this is supposedly for the child's benefit," says Jha.

"Nursery admissions are about the rights of schools and parents but not about the rights of the child. Once it focuses on the child, the mess will sort itself out," he says.

And while HC's stopping the government from issuing guidelines has resulted in full-blown panic among parents, Jha feels it's best they are issued after the court's decision. "Otherwise there'd be more litigation and a repeat of last year's scene."

But parents aren't too optimistic. "And the PIL game will start again," writes a parent on admissionsnursery.com. "Why am I getting nostalgic about all this? Seems like we will be reliving last year again," another writes., "This is like a never-ending war."

NBT 6  Nov हाई कोर्ट ने दिया नई गाइडलाइंस जारी न करने का निर्देश

---

नर्सरी एडमिशन पर हथौड़ा, और इंतजार Nursery Admissions - NBT 6 Nov - सेशन 2015-16 के लिए नर्सरी एडमिशन प्रोसेस अब जनवरी में ही शुरू हो पाएगा। पिछले साल के एडमिशन नियमों पर सवाल उठाते हुए स्कूलों ने हाई कोर्ट में याचिका दाखिल की थी, जिस पर दिसंबर में फैसला आएगा। कुछ सालों के एडमिशन ट्रेंड को देखें तो गाइडलाइंस जारी होने के करीब एक महीने बाद ही एडमिशन शुरू होते हैं। फिलहाल एडमिशन प्रोसेस की डेट्स को लेकर भविष्यवाणी नहीं की जा सकती, क्योंकि दिल्ली विधानसभा के चुनाव होने भी होने हैं। चुनाव जनवरी में होंगे तो एडमिशन और लेट हो सकता है। दूसरी तरफ, इस बार भी पैरंट्स परेशान नजर आ रहे हैं। एडमिशन नर्सरी डॉट कॉम के चेयरमैन सुमित वोहरा का कहना है कि गाइडलाइंस आने के बाद एडमिशन शुरू होने में कम से कम एक महीने का समय जरूर लगेगा। कोर्ट का आदेश आने के बाद पैरंट्स या स्कूलों की ओर से अपील किए जाने की बात से भी इंकार नहीं किया जा सकता। ऐसे में पैरंट्स इसी टेंशन में हैं कि कहीं पिछले साल की तरह एडमिशन प्रोसेस देर तक न खींच जाए। पैरंट्स चाहते हैं कि इस बार एडमिशन प्रोसेस समय पर हों और मार्च तक एडमिशन पूरे हो जाएं।