Nursery admissions: AAP Government to challenge HC order

The AAP government on Thursday said an appeal will be filed against the Delhi High Court’s stay of its order scrapping management quota in nursery admissions.

The schools, however, welcomed the court’s decision saying their “autonomy” has been upheld.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed AAP government’s order scrapping management quota in nursery admissions in private unaided schools. The court said the decision was taken without the authority of law.

It also stayed the Delhi government’s 6 January order with regard to 11 other admission criteria. This included issues like proven track record of parents in music and sports during admission of their children, that were also scrapped.

SK Bhattacharya, President of the Action Committee for Unaided Private Schools of which 400 reputed schools are members, said, “We welcome the high court’s order and it will come as a relief for the parents who have been lingering in anxiety as the entire process has been marred by chaos due to the government’s order.”

He said, “Schools did not know what to do, parents did not know whether the process will be delayed or not. So, all the confusion has ended thankfully”.

The government had last month scrapped management quota and all other reservations except the EWS category in private schools for nursery admissions. It also warned that erring institutions can be taken over by the Education Department.

The same Action Committee had also alleged that the government’s announcement amounted to “contempt of court” as the matter was sub-judice at that time. The committee had moved court in 2014 after Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung had notified the scrapping of quota.

source:www.thequint.com

AAP govt plans action against nursery admission interviews, donations....

The AAP government has decided to crack down on private schools in Delhi flouting admission rules and charging under-the-counter fees, a move aimed at cleaning up the city’s education system plagued by rampant corruption and mismanagement.

Stiff penalties are in the offing. According to the proposal, any institute demanding a donation or capitation fee in any form would be fined ten times the amount charged, or Rs 5 lakh, whichever is higher.

If a school breaks rules by interviewing children or their parents for nursery admissions, it would have to pay Rs 5 lakh for a first offence and Rs 10 lakh for each subsequent violation.

The government, which hiked its budget allocation for education by 106% this year, is planning a major overhaul of the school education system. The changes will be introduced by amending the Delhi School Education Act and Delhi School Education Rules 1973.

These modifications are likely to be cleared in the assembly session beginning on Wednesday as the ruling party has 67 of the total 70 legislators.

Once the bill for education reforms is approved in Delhi assembly, it would be sent to the Centre. Changes are likely to be implemented in the next academic session starting April 2016.

The AAP government, which rode to power this February on promises of corruption-free governance, is also drafting a law under which a committee headed by a retired judge would monitor school fee hikes and about 400-500 authorised chartered accountants would scrutinise the accounts of these institutes.

“If the schools are found siphoning fee money to other accounts or making fake bills, they could face imprisonment. The penalties and jail term will be decided soon,” said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

“The committee will have the power to ask schools to refund the excess money and will prescribe the fee for the next year. Also, there will be penal provision against the school and the management amounting to criminal prosecution and fine.”

After Rajasthan, Delhi too is mulling a law to end the no-detention policy in schools which came with the Right to Education. The government has yet to decide whether the policy will be restricted till Class 3 or 5.

“We are committed to improve the education in government schools, but there are also several complaints with private schools. So we are bringing in changes and will take action against those schools charging capitation fee either in cash or kind,” said Kejriwal.

Admissions for students from the economically weaker sections, for whom every school reserves 25% of its seats as mandated by the RTE Act, will now go online and become centralised.

During the admission process, the government, and not schools, would conduct the draw of lots to decide which students get picked.

There are plans to amend the Delhi School Education Rules, 1973, and withdraw a clause that says private schools should pay their teachers fees equivalent to government school teachers.

In the new arrangement, salaries of teachers in private schools will be fixed as per the minimum wages, and the government will decide on the proportion that is to be paid.

Delhi’s directorate of education (DoE) would also get more teeth. If a school does not comply with an order, the DoE would be able to take over the management or de-recognise it.

source: HT

Nursery admission rules in the Capital could change this year again....

Education minister Manish Sisodia confirmed that a law to bring in new guidelines would be introduced in the assembly session starting November 18

The “neighbourhood” criterion could be enough for three-year-olds to enroll in nursery class as the AAP government might chuck out all other norms with an aim to simplify the process — dubbed an annual headache for parents.

Education minister Manish Sisodia confirmed that a law to bring in new guidelines would be introduced in the assembly session starting November 18. “The new law will streamline the nursery admission process in the city.”

As part of the simplification exercise, a source said, a plan is being worked out to keep only the neighbourhood criterion or distance from home to school for a child seeking admission — the closer the better.

“This means, even general category students will be selected through draw of lots which is currently done for children from economically weaker sections of society for whom 25% seats are reserved under the right to education.”

The controversy-prone nursery admission process in Delhi, which normally starts in December, has undergone several changes in the past as the authorities looked for ways to make things easier.

In 2013, lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung issued a set of guidelines that reserved 70 points for children applying for admission in a “neighbourhood” school. Admissions were given to those living within a 6km radius of the school. The following year, the rule varied from school to school — from 3km to 6km.

“The neighbourhood norm is undoubtedly good because it agrees with the right to education. It will save children the hassle of travelling miles to reach school. It is not discriminatory and every child will be treated equally,” said Ashok Aggarwal, a lawyer and founder of Social Jurist, an NGO that works in the field of education.

It filed a court petition seeking a ban on interviews in 2004 and later sought scrapping of the point system when right to education was enforced in 2010. A source in the education department said the management quota, which allows 20% seats to be reserved for school authorities and children of staff, could also be junked.

Besides state-run schools, the rules are meant to regulate admissions to entry-level classes in private recognised institutions as well.

Source: HT

The Paras World School (TPWSI) Admission Open for session 2016-2017

The Paras World School (TPWSI) opens admissions for session 2016-2017.

Forms are available in the TPWSI office. Click here or go to http://www.schoolswelike.com/senior-secondary-schools/paras-world-school for more details about school, location, route, reviews and ratings.

Age criteria is as follows:

• For Admission to Pre Nursery: Completed 2 years by March 31st
• For Admission to Nursery: Completed 3 years by March 31st
• For Admission to Kindergarten: Completed 4 years by March 31st
• For Admission to Grade 1: Completed 5 years by March 31st

(Source: school website)

Click here to see school information brochure

Nursery Admissions: 10 questions every parent must ask - hold on!

While trying to understand what options we as parents get when we go out hunting for schools, I came across this article on Rediff that is so impractical that I was encouraged to write this post to give a clear and more practical approach to this million dollar question - "what questions every parent must ask?"

First of all - if you have ever been to a school for admissions - ask YOURSELF this question - are you given the choice or time to ask questions back to school? The 99% of us would answer this question with one word "No", what we are given usually left with is few minutes of time to scan through the list of to-dos or checklists that we need to fulfill in order to get our ward into that school; Or some of the 'branded' schools will handover a nicely done 'sales brochure' and we take that home hoping that this booklet will have answer to all our questions - but seldom thats true; and I am talking about any and all schools across India - you know of any exceptions? Most welcome - feel free to drop a note and I shall cover and highlight them on my portal and blog - they deserve to be appreciated - isn't it?

So the question of what to ask is hardly practical in today's scenario (realistically), so what I as parent myself and having over 8 years of close experience in Nursery Admissions and related issues and challenges, I can tell you that there is no way you get opportunity to ask questions. Specially in metro cities!

Rather, we as parent need to act more intelligently, do research of our own,
1) explore offline feedback from parents of existing students from same school, or
2) check for online reviews at sites like SchoolsWeLike.com or Google Plus profile page of that school for community reviews, or
3) check school sites, brouchers, past performance history etc if you can get handle to it, and
4) Discuss and get involved with other parents on community forums like one here

I don't think a school admin staff will ever give you enough time or opportunity to ask questions like the author has listed in his article.

Here are few quick links to get you started - Top 10 CBSE Schools In India, in Delhi, in Gurgaon, in Bangaluru

Note: I encourage and request all to take out few minutes and review school(s) you have been to, or your kids might be going to; to help community and other parents like us. Thanks!

Delhi Update: Admissions Open in Several Schools - UPDATED!

 Here starts the great Nursery Admissions Fair also known as "Nursery Admissions in Delhi"


Several schools have announced the admissions dates for October month for Nursery Admissions for session 2010-2011 and majority of these schools are from would want to get over this early on to avoid rush at later stage, as I had written in my previous article that give a positive angle to the admissions process that what some of the admissions experts have been trying to push in parents minds. Read that article here: "Admissions Starting Early? Do we really have a problem!?"


Some of the leading schools are:

• The Indian School, Josip Broz Tito Marg, Moolchand, New Delhi
  Updates as on 21st Oct at 9am IST - School has changed the plan of distributing the forms and a notice has been placed at school site. See here
  
   
• Presidium School, Pitampura and Dwarka, Delhi
• Sant Nirankari Publish School, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi

Some more Delhi schools are about to announce their dates and we can hope to get a more comprehensive schedule of dates before Diwali time.


We have been publishing the consolidated admissions events on Nursery Admissions community for Parents, the one stop shop for all admissions related updates, so that you need not to "follow" some groups, posts or need not to go confusing sites to find right admissions information. It's clean and straight forward - just plain nursery admissions information and nothing else.


What more? We have also put all newspaper ads that schools are releasing in major newspapers in Delhi on the site so that you dont even have to scan your trash to find those ads, you can find all those nursery admission ads/advts here.


Your suggestions and contributions are most welcome. Just in case you see I have missed any ad- please let me know so that I can put it in the stack so other can also benefit from it.

Nursery admission events at one place

It is really very dificult to consolidate the admissions dates and keep a track of it so we have published a consolidated calendar of admisions dates (admisisons events and updates like form submission dates, ending dates and so on).

To hook to this calendar visit this site:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=spyderindia@gmail.com&ctz=Asia/Calcutta

If you have google account, you can add this calendar to your gmail, gtalk or even to your blackberry/GSM enabled cell phone as well.

Nursery Admission: farce and parents being mislead

ये एडमिशन भी क्या न कराये...किसी ने इस एडमिशन में अपने हाथ जलाये और किसी ने किसी के हाथ काटे, and few used this as a tool to gain popularity and went on to an extent where they even started cheating and fooling dear parents.


People have been using several free community sites to provide discussion forums to parents community which comes at 0 (Zero) cost unless someone really want to run a business out of it....I read a recent article in one of the leading news papers in that talked about couple of parents spending lakhs on running the nursery admissions site and all.....I almost died laughing when I read such baseless claims - oh my god :D


Here are some basics on how to run a site like those:
1) Go to http://www.ning.com and create a site in just 2 mins - Cost : Rs: 0/- (yes, Zero rupees!), no programming or design knowledge required! Even your grand ma can do it if she understands browsing and knows how to handle mouse and key board.
2) Go to admin and throw several gadgets as you feel like and you are done!
3) If you want to do a feature like SMS alerts os such you can do it just by paying approx Rs 15k and that will give you roughly 3 lakh SMS. There are several thousands service providers out there.


I ran this blog and community without much hip-hop and have hardly spend a penny in last 3 years except when I had to run call helpline and used to call parents - probably few hundreds - not much.


Admission has become such a topic that now few businessman has started using as tool to get media attention and fooling parents by throwing spams!


I have so many facts and proofs with me that are enough to expose all those cheaters but I will let parents decide themselves as at least they are getting some benefit out of it after all :)


Good luck and Cheers -Spyder

Admissions Starting Early? Do we really have a problem!?

I was reading the article published today in HT (Hindustan Times) - "Forms Already on Sale in Select Delhi Schools", and I was wondering why we (read parents and media/reporters) do not try to learn the basics of admissions. Probably every year this admission mela brings new bloggers, reporters and of course new parents as well who are confused, lost in this mela and are not able to decide where to go and how to get out of it with ease, after all what every parent want is a seat in good school in neighbourhood for their kid.

Section 9 (C) of DoE guidelines clearly gives school an option to adopt their own schedule for admission - the only requirement is that such schools must intimate the schedule to Education Director - that's it! So what are we talking about here - we surely need to understand DoE guidelines.

In my opinion this should be seen as good move (may not be the best move though), that some school are starting early as this give me as a parent some benefit as I will have less schools to chase during rush hours later when rest of them start selling forms, and if I as a parent know that this is one of the schools (the one that have started early) that I am looking for then why not to fill the form and go ahead with admission. I might want to try another basis if I got the admission in this school or not.

I also co-relate this with general job interviews for freshers, I always suggest them to go for any interview that comes there way - you might not like that company but that would give you some experience in terms of how to face interview panel, what are my weak areas, what are the things that need to work on and this would prepare me better for next round coming up late in this year.

....and dear parents I urge that lets start thinking positive. It's third year since the new guidelines were released thing little positive and lets not get confused by all this. I strongly recommend "Parent's Handbook - Nursery Admission in Delhi" book to all parents that would not only walk you through the key rules and regulations in a simplified manner but would also give you clear directions on how to take all this stress with ease and make a decision that is successful for you and your  kid. Did I mention that regardless of this book being one of its kind guide that is ever written this book is being distributed FREE of cost to all parents!

Let's beware and be aware as well. Right information at right time can be so rewarding but let's recognize that we need to know what's right and what's wrong. I wish I could personally distribute the books to every parent in Delhi but unfortunately I do not have what kind of resources.

I wish I could fly... :)

Cheers

Spyder

Admission Ads in news papers (2009-2010 session)

I had taken the scanned copies of nursery admission ads from leading new papers of last year and had published those ads from last session 2009-2010 on the community website at http://nurseryadmissionsdelhincr.ning.com/profiles/blogs/admission-ads-in-new-papers

This might not help much in new session but i feel this would at least help with some basic information from these schools like their address, contact information, some quick rules from those respective school.

Hope this helps

New Year Gift from SPYDER to all Fellow Parents!

New Year Gift from SPYDER to all Fellow Parents!
Giving away the free copies of Parent’s Handbook. Offer limited to100 copies (total 64 copies were distributed and offer is CLOSED now!) only and cannot be clubbed with any other offer available on thiseBook. Offer is valid from 09:00am IST 31st Dec 08 until 2400 hrs (midnight) on 4th Jan 09.

Just register and send an e-mail toSpyderIndia@gmail.com with subject “New Year Gift - eBook” with Your Login ID. Your Full Name and Your residence address.
-: Important Notes :-
eBook will be sent to your e-mail id. No other requests would be entertained.Handbook will be sent in password protected eBook (PDF) format only. Only one copy will be sent to one e-mail address. eBook is copyright protected and all rights (worldwide) are reserved by the authors. eBook will be sent via e-mail within 7 working days from the day the e-mail is received. No claims or any other concerns shall be entertained related to eBook, including but not limiting to corrupted file, loss of data, version etc.Offer is valid for Indian citizens only!

(20th Dec 2013: Update: http://blog.nurseryadmission.net/2013/12/download-nursery-admissions-delhi.html)