School principals welcome Delhi nursery admission announcement

NEW DELHI: School principals in the national capital welcomed the announcement of the nursery admissions schedule which has cleared the air for parents who were waiting for two months for clarity on the issue.

The Directorate of Education (DoE) on Wednesday announced that the admission process for entry-level classes will begin from February 18 and will conclude on March 31.

Usually, nursery admissions in around 1,700 schools in the national capital beginning in the last week of November. The DoE releases guidelines and schools are asked to furnish the required information, following which the application process is rolled out in December.

The Delhi government officials had in December said a proposal to scrap nursery admissions was being considered as schools were closed for nine months due to COVID-19 and will remain closed till a vaccine was available.

Nursery admission 2021-22

A whole year of online learning for small children seems unviable, they had said. But school principals had opposed this idea. However, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia last month had ruled out scrapping nursery admissions.

“The Directorate of Education of Delhi in their recent announcement about beginning the nursery admissions next week has made the future of lakhs of students secured. The school management and teachers are rejoicing at the move and preparing themselves to welcome the new batch of young ones,” said Priyanka Barara, Principal, MRG School, Rohini, Delhi.

“In the past few days, while the government was considering the possibility of scrapping the nursery admissions off, a unanimous opinion from parents and teachers prevailed that a whole year of the child will completely go waste. We are glad the authorities took notice of our concerns and made a positive move,” she added.

According to Sumedha Goel, Director, The Shri Ram Wonder Years, Rohini, “the construct of the nursery class is a conduit between home to school. It acts as the first classroom which can be a great boost to children's confidence and overall development”.

“It is clear from the recent announcements by the government that it fully understands the major impact nursery classes can have on a child's growth. We as school authorities appreciate the move and are hoping to interact with our little ones soon. Our efforts would be directed towards accommodating children as per the new scenario,” she added.

Alka Kapur, Principal, Modern School, Shalimar Bagh, said, ”The Directorate of Education has already thought things through and given appropriate directions so there isn’t much to improvise while conducting the admissions. The only thing that has been left solely to the jurisdiction of schools is the responsibility of devising a fair, reasonable, and unbiased admission procedure. We will be conducting the admissions via a lottery system as it is the most suitable procedure of admission for nursery class”.

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Parents have also welcomed the move saying it was not a wise idea to scrap the admission for a whole year. “We have been on the hook waiting for the announcement for nursery admission schedule. There was a lot of uncertainty about whether it will happen or not and when will it happen as almost two months had passed than the usual deadline,” said Pragati Mishra, a parent.

Ram Jha, another parent said, “It is right that it is not easy to teach such small kids online and it is harmful to an extent too but not letting them be involved in any formal learning for the whole year was not a wise idea. We are happy that the government has issued instructions".

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