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Action for School Admission Reforms (ASAR)

If the answers to the above mentioned questions is 'yes', then you must join us in taking action to make the admission process transparent, accountable and centralized. The School Choice Campaign (SCC) and SchoolAdmissions.in (previously www.nurseryadmissions.com) launched a new initiative, Action for School Admission Reforms (ASAR) in 2008 in Delhi to help parents and concerned others tackle the undue stress imposed upon them by schools during the admission process. ASAR is a helpdesk for parents to lodge complaints, even anonymously, against unscrupulous schools. All complaints will be sent to the Directorate of Education (DoE) for them to act on and pressurize such establishments to bring about necessary changes.

Thanks to your support and our sustained effort, the DoE released an order on 28 Oct, 2009 directing all schools to have a 'Common Admission Schedule' This move comes in the wake of the release of a Parents' Charter by the School Choice Campaign demanding that all schools begin and close admissions at the same time so that parents are not harassed unnecessarily into taking leaves and running from school to school for their child's admission. It is indeed a victory for ASAR!.

In 2008, the Government of Delhi issued a circular to the schools, giving guidelines for carrying out the admissions. In this regard CCS filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court seeking the Court’s intervention to ensure compliance by schools of the Ggovernment regulations for nursery admissions. The Hon’ble High Court passed an order on the 19 December 2008 agreeing with the contentions of the petitioner. SCC also filed a RTI seeking information of the schools that did not comply with the admission guidelines issued by the DoE. The information received was then forwarded to respective authorities for further action.

But our task remains far from being fulfilled, and it will remain so without your assistance. We need to create conditions for action so that the Directorate of Education takes up the Parents' Charter and enforces it upon schools.

ASAR Objectives: Click here to read ASAR objectives.

Parents' Charter for the Directorate

The objective of the Parents' Charter's is to bring about transparency, accountability and standardization in the admission process. We are going to present this to the Directorate of Education and advocate these reforms to the government. The Parents' Charter was formed on the basis of the common concerns in the admissions process with parental consensus.

• Common Admission Schedule: The admission process should be made centralized so that all the school admissions begin at the same time and get over within the same time period and there is a commin admission schedule.
• Transparency of Results: The schools must comply with the High Court Order No. 8990 (19 Dec 2008) and display the exact break-up points for each child when they release the admissions list on the notice board / school website / Directorate of Educatioin website.
• Transparency of Criteria: The break-up of points must be based on 'definitive' criteria avoiding vagueness like - group discussions; national level achievements of parents ets. where the school can at its convenience, allocate points.
• Fee Refund and Deduction: In case a child is not admitted to the school, the fee refund must be equal to the tuition fee of a quarter year, instead of total fee taken in the first quarter. Due to ambiguity in this, every school constructs its own refund structure and charges exorbitant amounts.
• Time-bound Fee Refund: The refund of the fee deposited where applicable must happen with in 3 working days of filling applications for refund. Currently, parents have to wait for upto a month or more to get the refund back, thus leading them to take loan / arrange other means to pay the fee at other schools.