Nursery admission: Kids in general category have slim chance

Updated on: Monday, January 09, 2012

Children aged over 4 years and those who don't enjoy any special quota seem to have a bleak chance of getting admission this year.

Since many Delhi schools are not taking fresh batches for KG and offering only 35 per cent or less seats to kids under general category for nursery.

Barring a few, most of the schools in the city have not opened admissions in KG this year citing zero vacancy, cutting down the scope of admission for those who missed or failed to secure a seat last year.

Another hazard that parents are facing this time is the less number of seats available under general category. As almost all top schools are giving weightage to children in sibling and alumni categories and have kept aside a major junk of their seats for EWS, management and disabled child quota, the chances of those who don't suit to these criteria are very slim, parents have complained.

Arti Jain, who in 2011 had applied in 21 schools for her son's nursery admission but failed to secure a seat in any of those school, says she is not very hopeful of securing her child's admission this year too.

"My son is four years old now and fit for admission in KG this year. But after screening admission notice of schools, I got very much disappointed. None of schools in our vicinity is accepting children for KG. If I try for nursery, my son would lose a year," Jain told.

"And as my child doesn't fall under any special category, I am really hopeless this year too."

In 2007, the Ganguly Committee had recommended that KG should be the entry level for a child aged four years before he or she begins formal schooling (Class I). But schools are treating nursery as the entry level.

"This is a very peculiar situation which needs to be addressed carefully," said Ashok Ganguly, the former CBSE chairmen, who headed that very committee.

"Giving priority to children under the heads like sibling or alumni is not wrong. But the weightage schools are giving to those categories now is something that needs to be looked into," he pointed out.

"Students applying under alumni or sibling criteria eat out a big slice of nursery admission pie," said Sumit Vohra, founder of popular online parents forum admissionsnursery.com.

"Those who don't fall under these criteria and also not under the quotas like management, staff or EWS, their chance of getting admission is very bleak despite applying in 20-30 schools," he said.

Ashok Pandey, Principal of Ahlcon International School in Mayur Vihar, concurred. "Of course, such categories minimise the admission prospects of kids applying in the general category. However, they were important factors which cannot be negated during the selection procedure," he said.

"Suppose, you have two kids, one of them is studying in our school. Would you like your other kid to study in another school?" he asked.

Ganguly, however, says although these categories should be maintained, too much weightage should not be given to them.

"And most importantly, there should be a uniformity which is not visible in the admission process," he said.

He also points out that the problem, which haunts parents every year, stems from huge "disequilibrium between the demand and supply".

"There are a few good schools, while the number of kids who want a seat in them is manifold. To arrest this problem, the government has to strengthen its own education system," he suggested.

"If all government-run schools also start pre-primary classes, the demand for private shools would come down and so would the chaos and controversies," he said.

Vohra said, "The Delhi Government has to wake up to the reality and try to improve the condition of the government-run schools."

Nursery admission: Kids in general category have slim chance

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