Despite the deferred Supreme Court hearing and the Directorate of Education (DoE) directive that no school in the Capital can start nursery classes, several schools began their term on Monday. While some people claim that these schools don’t come under the ambit of the guidelines, the DoE has a contrary version to deliver. Thus, a lot of parents and schools are out on a limb over contradictory reports.
Padmini Singla, Director of Education, has issued an order on April 15 stating that all the schools must comply with the Supreme Court order. However, a lot of schools interpreted the order in their own way and started the session on Monday. “We had asked everyone to comply with the SC order, which meant that there was a stay on nursery admissions and no one should have opened their schools. People who have not complied with this directive will now have to deal with it once the SC issues their order on April 28. Our role was to notify them, and we did that. Rest is on them,” she said.
School administrators who have still not started nursery classes have a different version to the story. According to Ameeta Mulla Wattal, Principal, Springdales School, Pusa Road, the schools that have opened are all minority schools, which don’t come under the ambit of guidelines. “All minorities are allowed to open. There has just been so much confusion. People do not understand that the schools that have opened are minority schools. In case any other school has opened, I cannot comment. But what I feel is that nobody will do contempt of court on
purpose,” she said.
“In the confusion of which school comes under the guidelines and which does not, parents are very distressed. Parents on online forums have also posted that it is just bad luck that their child needed to go to nursery this year. Even if the schools are not opening now, the anticipation of when they will finally open is consuming them, said Ricky Khorana, a parent. “The state of confusion is just too much. People are so unnerved by this. Now the hearing is only on April 28. After that when will the schools openIJ Even if they open in the first week of May, by May 15 they will be shut again for the summer break. The money we have paid is also likely to go down the drain and schools are not saying anything,” he added.
Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, opined the same. “Parents have lost their patience. There are so many versions that no one knows which one is correct,” he said.