Admission process for nursery begins in Delhi, criteria in focus
The first list of selected candidates will be released on January 12, 2024, and the admission process will conclude on March 8, 2024
The admission process at private schools in Delhi for students in nursery, kindergarten (KG), and Class 1 for the academic year 2024-25 are set to begin on Thursday, Directorate of Education (DoE) officials said.
This year, while most schools will upload the admission forms online, some will also be sold on campus.
In an announcement, DoE said the admission process will start on November 23, and the last date for the submission of applications is December 15.
The first list of selected candidates will be released on January 12, 2024, and the admission process will conclude on March 8, 2024.
DoE officials said that candidates will be admitted based on a points system based on different criteria — the distance between a candidate’s residence and school has been a primary category for most schools, while other institutions will also award points if a candidate’s parents or siblings studied in the same school, on whether the candidate is a girl, on whether the candidate has special needs, and to children of single parents.
If there is a tie between two candidates for one seat, the schools conduct a draw of lots.
The criteria, however, varies from school to school, and parents and guardians can check these points on the DoE website.
According to the DoE notification dated October 18, schools were to upload their admission criteria on the websites by November 20. As of Wednesday evening, 1,041 private/unaided registered schools had uploaded their criteria while 690 were pending.
“We have kept the criteria simple... 85 points are given to distance, and 15 points will be given to children who have a sibling studying in the school, parents who are alumni, and 15 points will be awarded to children of staff,” said Jyoti Arora, principal of Mount Abu School in Rohini.
DoE officials said that 25% of the seats in each school have been allocated for candidates from the economically weaker section (EWS).
According to the DoE notification, the upper age limit is four years (as of March 31) for nursery, five years for kindergarten and six years for Class 1.
The National Education Policy 2020 stipulates that students should be six years of age while joining Class 1.
An official of the education department, who did not want to be named, said, “For this year, we will be sticking with the previous age criteria. As per NEP, another class needs to be added, and this will have implications in terms of resources and cost. It is a major policy change. Hence, we cannot implement it overnight.”
The DoE notification also warned schools against including criteria such as parents’ education, profession, income, food habits, or interviews of students and parents — abolished by the Delhi government in 2016.
However, educators alleged that some schools continued admitting students based on the banned criteria. “In complete disregard of the guidelines, some schools have given preference to criteria abolished by the government, such as points for transfer students from other states,” said Sumit Vohra, who runs a portal on nursery admissions.
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