Govt files affidavit stating policy for nursery admissions

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Nov 7 (UNI) Acting on the directions of the High Court, the Delhi Government has drafted a uniform policy for admission of children to private unaided schools.

This policy, if approved by the Court, will be binding on all private schools in the capital.

Till now, schools were following their own criteria with regard to the age of children being admitted and children as young as three years were being admitted as pre nursery students. Interviews of parents and their children were also being conducted to assess the financial standing of the parents and children of affulent parents could get admissions by paying hefty donations.

The High Court had recently banned schools from conducting interviews of budding students at this tender age and called for a more transparent process. On the directions of the court, a committee headed by Ashok Ganguly was constituted to look into the criteria of admissions and to determine the minimum age of a student to be admitted in nursery class.

The Ganguly Committee's recommendations were passed to the Government to draft a uniform policy for admissions to private schools.

The Directorate of Education submitted its policy before a bench headed by Chief Justice M K Sharma today in the form of an affidavit which would be binding on all private schools. Additional Director of Education S N Ghonkrokata said this policy would provide complete transparency and objectivity in admission procedures and autonomy to each school would be ensured.

The new policy states that nursery class would be called pre-primary class and children of minimum of four years would be admitted. Pre-primary class would be of one year duration and take place before class one and a child should have completed four years as on March 31 to be eligible for this class.

For admission in class one, a student should have completed the minimum age of five years as on March 31.

The policy also states that all schools would have standardised admission forms and uniform dates for distribution of these admission forms to pre-nursery class. The distribution of forms would be take place from November 30 to December 15 and the last date for submission of filled up forms would be December 30 for all the schools.

The first and second list of admissions should be put up by February 1, the third list on February 28 and the fourth on March 15.

Schools will have to inform parents of all details relating to the number of seats available to the weaker sections of society, the policy further states.

There will be no interviews of children nor will there be any observation, formal or informal. It also prohibits the lottery system or selection or short listing of children.

Parents will not be asked to submit any documents at the time of submission of registeration forms, however, documents can be called for at the time of admission of the child.

The admission criteria should be clear, well-defined, equitable, non discriminatory, the policy adds.

Children staying in the neighbourhood should be given preference in admissions and if the students admitted to the school live in far off places, it becomes the duty of the school to provide safe transport to them.

Children from all social and economic backgrounds should be equally considered for admission and schools should make a conscious efforts to admit children with special needs or vulnerable backgrounds. A proper monitoring committee should ascertain the admission process in the schools, the policy adds.

UNI

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