New Delhi: The Delhi High Court's order on Tuesday banning interviews of parents and their wards seeking admission to nursery and primary classes has been widely welcomed by parents while school managements are adopting a cautious approach on the issue.
Schools have been given till November 3 to give their reaction to the report of a committee headed by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairperson Ashok Ganguly.
"About 110 schools of Delhi are holding a meeting to discuss the issue," said Usha Ram, national secretary of the National Progressive Schools Conference. All the top schools of the capital have called for an urgent meeting to devise a strategy to counter this decision, she said.
"Though most of the schools had agreed to the points made in the report, it is unclear about the admission procedure that schools should undertake."
"The committee does not want us to speak to the parents or the child (during admissions), but they have agreed to judge the parents on the basis of their educational qualification," she said.
"I think if a parent is not well educated, the child should be given an opportunity to study in the best school. Under this system (according to the report), children will lose marks if their parents are not well educated."
According to the committee report, instead of interviews the schools can give points or marks under various categories during the admissions. The categories include 20 marks for parents education, marks for the professional qualifications of the parents, having a sibling in the school, living within 3-km of the school and for any physical disability.
"On the basis of the recommendations of the committee, schools would judge children on the basis of such marks," added Ram.
Gyan Bharati School Director R C Shekhar said, "At least the committee should have allowed us to speak to the parents informally. We should have the right to know the parents (of students being admitted)."
"There are lacunas in the report. On one side the report does not want us to interview the child but the committee is ready to judge a child on the basis of marks. I do not think that the child should be introduced to the marking system when they come to a school for the first time," added Shekhar.
"It seems the committee is not clear on the admission procedure," he added.
The Delhi High Court Tuesday ruled that schools would not be allowed to interview children or their parents for admission to nursery and primary classes in the capital.
A division bench accepted the report headed by CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly that recommended that no interviews be held at all. The bench said schools that had any objections to the recommendations could file their views in the high court.
The bench had appointed the Ashok Ganguly committee two months ago when private unaided schools here failed to reach a consensus on devising an alternative method for admission to these classes.
The matter is scheduled to come up for hearing on Nov 3, and the date for implementation of the new recommendation will be decided on that date.
Meanwhile, parents of young children were happy with the decision.
"I am very happy. At least schools would not deny admission without giving any reason. Everything will be known to the parents because marks would be allotted to the child," said Seema Sethi, who has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, Tejas.
"I was scared about my child's admission but this decision has definitely lessened the pressure," she added.
Anu Sachdeva, another parent, was also upbeat. "I think the neighbourhood school policy will help children as they will not have to travel long distances and would be given admission in schools close to their homes."
The committee has recommended that points should be given to students on the basis of the distance between the school and homes.
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