‘Neighbourhood criteria’ leaves parents confused’

NEW DELHI: Parents seeking admission to their wards in nursery classes in the capital are a confused lot because of the ‘neighbourhood criteria’ (proximity of the child’s residence to school) as schools in the capital are adopting different methods.

Almost all the schools, giving admission in nursery and other entry level classes, give maximum points to the ‘neighbourhood criteria’. Some schools give a total of 70 points out of 100. However, the parents are confused in the absence of a uniform method to measure the distance from school/s.

While some of the schools are measuring it through Google’s aerial map, others are relying on transportation routes such as school buses. Some of the schools have also fixed neighbourhood points, according to localities and not actual distance in kilometres.

“Several parents like me are in a fix due to this. We don’t know whether to apply to schools based on kilometres, their bus routes, or the area we are living in. While some have mentioned the method on the basis of which they will be giving the points, we are clueless as the others haven’t defined ‘neighbourhood criteria’”, said a parent living in West Delhi.

Sumit Vohra, an education activist, and founder of admissionsnursery.com, an online forum for the parent community, has said that the directorate of education (DoE) should come up with a uniform policy for the ‘neighbourhood criteria’.

The admission process began from December 27 last year to around 1,600 private unaided recognised schools. The last date to submit application forms in the schools is January 17. On February 2, the schools will upload a list detailing marks given to each applicant based on the points system adopted by the school. The first list of selected students will be announced on February 15 next.

Despite the DoE’s directions to the schools not to discriminate among students, the private schools are openly asking the parents for details such as their income, caste, food habits and the like.