COVID: Sisodia rules out scrapping of nursery admission process this year

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday ruled out scrapping of nursery admission process this year in view of the coronavirus pandemic. "As of now, there is no plan to scrap nursery admissions this year. We are late this year in issuing notification but it will happen," he told reporters.

Usually, the process to enter children in nursery in around 1,700 schools in Delhi begins in the last week of November. The Directorate of Education (DoE) releases guidelines and schools are asked to furnish required information, following which the application process is rolled out usually in December. However, there has been no development on it this year.

Delhi government officials had earlier said that a proposal to scrap nursery admissions is being considered as the schools have been closed since nine months due to COVID-19 and will remain closed till a vaccine is available, a whole year of online learning for small children seems unviable. "The government has decided that schools will not reopen in Delhi till a vaccine is available. Even if they reopen, pre-primary students will be the last ones to start going to school. So, its unviable to enroll them for a year of online learning," an official had said last month. "However, no final decision has been taken in this regard and any move will be planned in consultation with schools only," the official had added.

However, school principals were opposed to the idea. Sisodia, who is also the Education minister of Delhi, reiterated that schools will not reopen till a vaccine is available for public. Sisodia's comments come on a day schools reopened for class 10 and 12 students in view of preparation of board exams. "We will wait for the vaccine to be made available to public at large and then a decision on reopening of schools for remaining classes will be taken," he said. Schools have been closed since March last year in view of the coronavirus pandemic.