Goverment nod to flexible nursery schedule

NEW DELHI: To save parents from the hassle of running around too much, Delhi government issued a uniform schedule for nursery admissions on Tuesday. But it also gave schools the freedom to deviate from it. The circular released by the directorate of education (DoE) makes it mandatory for private unaided schools to start their admission process from January 1 and wrap it up on March 31, though schools can have their own schedule due to 'specific circumstances' . Many schools, however, say they are happy to comply.

According to DoE, no deviation will be allowed from the date of commencement and closure of the process. The forms will be available for registration from January 1, while the last date of receipt of forms, as per DoE, will be January 15. In case of a change, the schools will have to inform DoE about by December 31.

"Since DoE has issued a schedule for all schools to follow, we will stick to it and start issuing the forms online from January 1. I don't think we will need to deviate from the given dates," said L V Sehgal, principal, Bal Bharati School, Ganga Ram Hospital Marg. The school plans to admit children on parameters that will include neighbourhood, sibling, alumni, special needs, first child and girl child.

Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal, Springdales School, agreed. Though the school was planning to start the sale of forms from January 3, as the first day of the year is generally a holiday in schools and January 2 is a Sunday, it will now follow the DoE schedule to the T. "Since government considered our suggestions for the admission criteria and gave us autonomy , we will also comply by the schedule released by it. We will now release the forms from January 1 too," Wattal said.

Meanwhile, schools are busy holding meetings of the management committee to fix the dates, decide the parameters and finalize the fee structures. D K Bedi, principal , Apeejay School, Pitampura, said, "It will be a week before we decide on the complete schedule. We also have to prepare format for submission of forms through website. We are likely to give weightage to candidates with special needs as well as girls." DPS Mathura Road principal M I Hussain informed, "Our forms will be out on January 1. The admission parameters will include points for distance, sibling, alumni, girl child/first child, special needs, single parent and transfer case."

DoE Schedule

Start of sale of forms: January 1
Last date for receipt of forms: January 15.
Closure of admission process is March 31
Last date of publication of list of selected candidates (including waiting list): February 1
Last date of publication of second list of selected candidates (of any): February 28