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Sell forms from Dec 15 or face music, schools told

Indian Express, 22 October 2009

New Delhi: Schools in the city will have to stick to a uniform schedule for nursery admissions process or face action, according to the Directorate of Education. The Directorate has asked all public schools to follow a uniform calendar and start selling admission forms from December 15.

Parents were turned away at Indian School, on JB Tito Marg in South Delhi, on Wednesday when they came to collect admission forms as per the school’s announcement.

A school official said, “We gave them the prospectus. The Directorate of Education called us and said it was illegal to sell forms before December 15.”

Besides Indian School, six or seven other schools across the city have already announced admissions for nursery section.

According to the Directorate, commencing admissions out of the time-frame prescribed by the government is illegal and schools could face punitive action. Director of Education P Krishnamurthy said the new guidelines would be finalised in a couple of days. “The admission schedule in last year’s order stands — there has to be transparency in the process,” he said. “Schools that have announced admissions now have done it at their peril.”

As per last year’s guidelines, schools must sell forms from December 15 to 31, and continue to accept filled-up forms till January 7. “If they don’t,” Krishnamurthy said, “they are violating the orders. We are discussing penalty for schools that fail to comply.”

National Progressive Schools Conference chairman S L Jain said they were yet to receive any notification from the government. “The action committee will take up the issue,” he said. “According to the court, we can have our own schedules for admissions. We are only required to notify the DoE.”

R Baladevan, director of the School Choice Campaign, Centre for Civil Society, an NGO, said school autonomy does not mean institutions can disregard government orders. The NGO had last year moved the High Court with parents’ complaints regarding the chaotic process of nursery admissions.

Read the story in Indian Express