Post-RTE,confusion over nursery admissions With DoE Yet To Release Guidelines,Schools In The Dark About New Admission Criteria Neha Pushkarna | TNN New Delhi: Anjali Rajput has been preparing her three-year-old daughter for getting admission into nursery for a few months now.However,she is not sure if her daughter will be eligible at all for nursery admissions this year. Worse still,even the schools do not have a clue.With the directorate of education (DoE) yet to release guidelines for the implementation of Right To Education Act,parents and schools are reeling under confusion. From the minimum age required to the basic process of admission everything is subject to change when the right to education is pushed into practice.According to DoE sources,they are still framing the guidelines for admission under RTE which may be issued by the end of this month. We do not know about the admission criteria as of now.Hopefully we will get some information from the DoE soon.The criterion for age will also be clear only then, said Usha Ram,principal,Laxman Public School. According to schools,they have been getting a lot of queries from anxious parents but they can only advise them to wait-and-watch for now.Jyoti Bose,principal,Springdales School,Dhaula Kuan,said, Since we havent received any instructions or notices from the DoE yet,we are not sure if the admissions will be done through a lottery or in some other way. As per RTE,a child cannot be screened in any way for admission till class VIII.Bose added that it would be difficult for schools to carry out the lottery system because of the large number of registrations every year. Its definitely going to be tough if we have 5,000 applications for 128 seats to be filled up by lottery.Then there are a lot of overlapping categories too like alumni ward,girl child,etc.We are just waiting as of now, she said. For the last two years,the DoE has been instructing schools to begin the nursery admission process only from December 15.That leaves them with over a month to prepare for the admission process and inform the parents. Parents have started making enquiries but we are confused about the age too.We do not know if the minimum age required for nursery will be 3+ as per the high court direction or 4+ under RTE.Its time the DoE issued the directives for this year, said D K Bedi,principal,Apeejay School,Pitampura. NO CLARITY Minimum age for admission to nursery in Delhi is 3 years or older but government and schools have been keen on 4 years or older Current admission procedure is based on parameters like distance,ward of alumni,siblings,and even parents qualification that add up to 100 points The new system under RTE will do away with screening of any kind.Schools are likely to switch to lottery system DoE is still in the process of framing new guidelines ORDEAL IN MAKING: With mismatch in number of seats and candidates,parents go through a harrowing time every year

SANCHITA GUPTA
PGDM 1ST SEM