Delhi: Nursery admissions to begin from Saturday

The process for the nursery admission for nearly 1,700 private schools and around 1.52 lakh seats will begin in the national capital from Saturday. The private schools had made their criteria public on Friday.

The distance of student's residence from the school, sibling quota, parents being alumni of the school, single child, first child are some of the criteria listed by schools for admissions to the entry-level classes.

According to the schedule released by the Directorate of Education (DoE), the application window will be open from Saturday and the last date of submitting application forms for nursery class admission for 2019-20 session is January 7.

The first list of selected children, along with marks secured by them, will be out on February 4. The second list will be out on February 21 and if seats are still available then the third list will be out on March 15. The admission process will conclude on March 31.

The schools will have to give information on the points given by the school to the child under the application on general seats till January 28, 2019

All private schools in Delhi will have to follow this guideline and for the admission of children, schools cannot take more than Rs 25 from the parents.

Twenty-five per cent seats in pre-school, pre-primary and Class 1 will be reserved for economically weaker sections/disadvantaged groups (EWS/DG). 
The directorate had instructed all private schools to upload their criteria (with points for each criterion) for admission in open seats, on its official website by December 14. There is, however, no clarity yet on the schedule of EWS admissions.

The government has also set an upper age limit of less than four years to be eligible for the nursery, less than five years for kindergarten, and less than six years for admission to Class 1.

The proposal for an upper age limit was challenged in court last year. Though a Delhi High Court order last year had allowed the imposition of the upper age limit, the DoE had decided that the order will be applicable only from 2019 academic session. Apart from the abolished criteria, the schools have been given autonomy to come up with their own points system. 

Like the previous year, 75 general category seats will be filled from the 100-point formula. While 25 per cent seats will be for the economically backward class and the children of the disadvantaged class.

No school will be able to end the application process before the last date for application for admission. Parents can take forms from the schools till the last day of submission.