Parents’ relief consequent to Delhi High Court’s order allowing commencement of nursery admission in Delhi proved to be shortlived. The Supreme Court on Friday put a stay on nursery admissions in the city bringing back the same distress and panic among parents and school authorities.
The order comes a week after the Delhi High Court gave the green signal to admissions and parents were expecting admission of their children sooner. The stay order came on a petition filed by parents challenging the HC’s order saying children who have shifted from a different State to Delhi will get no quota. The Court has also issued notice to the Delhi Government.
Since most of the admissions were already done based on the February 27 guidelines as per the ruling, parents who have paid the fees and gone through the rigmarole of orientation are panic struck at the moment. Nitin Talwar, parent of a three-year-old, said, “It is the question of my child’s admission and looking at the way things are going I don’t even know if she will go to school this year or not.”
Principals of schools say they are awaiting elaborate instructions from the Directorate of Education (DoE) before telling parents anything. “We don’t want to confuse parents further by giving them half-baked information. The last four months have been tragic and there has been nothing but confusion. These kids are losing out the most. It is so emotionally taxing and we at this position can’t do anything but follow orders,” said Ameeta Mulla Wattal, Principal, Springdale School.
However, due to this, parents are complaining that schools are not giving them a clear picture as to whether their child’s admission stands valid or not. “When I spoke to school authorities they said that the school wouldn’t be starting on April 15, that’s all. We were so relaxed because our daughter had finally got her uniform and she was so excited. But now we are again disappointed,” said Payal Gupta, a resident of Dwarka.
According to academicians, parents should not worry. Sumit Vohra, founder, nurseryadmissions.com, feels that parents need to be patient. “This is just an interim stay. I think kids already admitted will not be dismissed. Everyone should wait for the April 16 order and then react,” he said.
Schools are now expected to open only in July since the summer break is approaching. Founder of lovely Public School in East Delhi RP Malik said that parents should not fret over admissions and instead wait for the date when schools will begin term. The Delhi High Court will pass a ruling on April 16 declaring the decision on inter-State transfers, after which the date for the session to start will be decided upon.