By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Wednesday fixed Nov 14 to pass an order on whether the private unaided schools in Delhi could frame their own guidelines for students’ admission into nursery classes in spite of the recommendations of an expert committee.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice M.K. Sarma adjourned the matter for hearing next Wednesday.
The government counsel in an affidavit said the state government had issued the guidelines to the unaided schools’ association to frame their own criteria for admission of students in nursery class.
In a petition, a group of 400 private schools asked the court to review its order on the age limit for admission to nursery and Class I.
Last year the court had ruled that the schools should adhere to the Delhi Education Act.
The pre-primary education should be restricted to one year and a child should be four years of age at the time of admission to nursery classes and five years for Class I, the order said.
But the schools argue that a child should have two years of nursery and kindergarten (KG) before admitting them in class 1.
The government had asked the schools to devise their own criteria and start admissions from Nov 30.
It said that it favoured more freedom for schools in admissions, but insisted there will be no interviews for children and that three years is the minimum age. Schools have also been told to consider children from all backgrounds.
The government will also set up a monitoring cell in every district to look into admission-related complaints. Further, it has asked schools to get their admission criteria approved by the managing committee of the school with the consent of the Director of Education.
The Delhi government informed the court that it was in favour of giving them guided autonomy.
The government said keeping in view their separate identities, these schools should be allowed to develop their own criteria for admissions to these classes.
By advocating autonomy for these schools, the Delhi government has rejected the Ashok Ganguly Committee’s “points formula” but for one or two of its guidelines for admission to these classes.
For example, it has agreed to the committee’s suggestion for elimination of interviews of or interaction with children and four years as the minimum age on April 1 for entry to nursery classes.
There would be no observation of children either in formal or informal conditions for their admissions, the affidavit stressed.
It also agreed with the committee’s recommendation that there would be no overall lottery system to select or shortlist children for admissions. However, a limited use of lottery could be adopted to break a tie, it stated.