The Hindu : New Delhi News : Nursery admissions: Govt. favours guided autonomy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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New Delhi

Nursery admissions: Govt. favours guided autonomy

Staff Reporter

‘To maintain their separate identities, ethos and philosophy, schools should be allowed to develop their own criteria for admissions’

Apart from one or two guidelines, Ganguly panel’s ‘point formula’ rejected
4 years as the minimum age on April 1 for entry to Nursery; No interviews with kids

NEW DELHI: Batting for the Capital’s private schools on the issue of guidelines for admission to pre-primary classes, the Delhi Government on Tuesday informed the Delhi High Court that it was in favour of giving them guided autonomy.

In an affidavit, the Government said keeping in view their separate identities with their own ethos and philosophy, these schools should be allowed to develop their own criteria for admissions to these classes.

By advocating autonomy for the school, the Delhi Government has rejected the Ashok Ganguly Committee’s “points formula” but for one or two of its guidelines for admission to these classes.

For example, it has agreed to the committee’s suggestions for elimination of interviews of or interaction with children and four years as the minimum age on April 1 for entry to Nursery. There would be no observation of children either in formal or informal conditions for their admissions, the affidavit stressed.

It also agreed with the committee’s recommendation that there would be no overall lottery system to select or shortlist children for admissions. However, a limited use of lottery could be adopted to break a tie, the affidavit stated.

The Court will take up the affidavit for consideration on Wednesday.

The admission process would begin on November 30 every year with release of all relevant information on the schools’ website, prospectus and notice boards. Distribution of registration forms would continue from November 30 to December 15 and the filled-up forms would be accepted at the schools up to 4 p.m. on December 30, the affidavit said.

The schools would display their first lists of selected children along with the waitlist or the second list on February 1 following scrutiny of forms in keeping with the admission criteria adopted by the schools. A third list would be displayed on February 28 and a fourth on March 15, the affidavit stated.

The schools would take into consideration the factors of neighbourhood, background of the child, sibling status, transfer cases and status of parents in the evaluation, the affidavit stated.

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