Confusion and complaints regarding nursery admissions continue unabated in the Capital as schools continue to flout guidelines. Falling victim to the “arbitrary” upper age limit fixed by a popular school, over 500 children of the economically weaker section were denied admission on the ground that their age was above four years.
In a list of “non-eligible” applicants released by DPS Dwarka, 521 EWS category students were found to be dropped from the admission process after having duly filled and submitted the forms. Going against the DoE guidelines and 2007 Gazette notification on the same, the school arbitrarily announced that children born between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011 were only being considered applicable.
Sumit Vohra, founder of Admissionsnursery.com, who has repeatedly complained to the Directorate of Education against such practices by schools, said, “It is absolutely unfair. I have made several complaints to the Delhi Government and DoE about the arbitrary upper age limit being set by schools but no action has been taken so far. The l-G order on the guidelines mentions this practice while referring it to the 2007 Gazette notification which prohibits schools from doing so.”
As per the 2007 notification by the city Government, there is no bar on children older than the minimum age of three years prescribed for nursery admissions. “The admission guidelines dated December 2013 also refers to the 2007 notification for the issue of upper age limit. Hence the schools can under no circumstance impose an upper age limit on applicants,” said Vohra, an activist. However, the Director of Education was not available for comment.
Meanwhile parents continue to fret about the uncertainty that prevails now. Several parents have been at the receiving end of this brazen flouting by schools and complain that this was the second time their kids were denied admission. “This time he has been denied admission for being over 4 years of age. Next year she will be five years then they will again disqualify her. When they accepted our forms in which we mentioned the age, then why have we been dropped nowIJ” asked a parent.