Delhi govt's proposal to scrap nursery admissions sparks discussions
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Delhi govt's proposal to scrap nursery admissions sparks discussions

The government said that the proposal will only get a go ahead after consulting all the stakeholders

Delhi govt's proposal to scrap nursery admissions sparks discussions Representative Picture

New Delhi: Ever since the report of Delhi government mulling to scrap nursery admissions for the session 2021-22 on account of the coronavirus pandemic came to the light, there has been a lot of discussions. It all began with a recent interview of Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia with the Indian Express.

During the interview, Sisodia had stated that there are no plans to reopen the schools anytime soon. He said, “If we start vaccinating people by February, we will only be able to vaccinate a sizeable chunk of population by July. With all this, there is no possibility of reopening the schools before that. We also have to work out the way the examinations should be conducted without risking both teachers and students.”

The Deputy CM said that while he is considering scrapping the nursery admissions, he is planning two batches of nursery and KG in the session 2022-23. He said that schools can admit the students in both nursery and kindergarten in the next session. “As the current situation is very unpredictable, the youngest will be the last to go to the schools,” he said.

A senior official also pointed out the limitations of online classes to support the proposal. He said that the kids, who got admissions in nursery classes this year, have not interacted with their teachers and classmates so far. He said, “One of the objectives of nursery and KG classes is to make children learn the way to talk with fellow classmates and teachers so that they are prepared for the future. But since the schools were closed, they were not able to learn these things. So, what is the point of going for nursery admissions?”

However, various media reports suggested that the school managements and principals are against scrapping the nursery admissions for next year in view of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of them reasoned that the students should get an opportunity to start formal education in whatever way possible. They said that the sooner the children are introduced to the education, there are better chances of them doing well in their lives.

Many school managements have supported the online education which has been imparted to the kids during the pandemic. They held the online method of teaching a great success during the ongoing pandemic. While saying this, they urged the government to go ahead with the admissions for nursery classes for the coming session of 2021-22.

Between all this, the Directorate of Education (DoE), which normally releases guidelines in December and asks schools to furnish all the required information to roll out the application process, has been silent this year. There has been no development in this regard so far. However, the Delhi government has also said that there has been no final decision on the proposal and it will only get a go ahead after consultation with all the stakeholders in the city.

The schools have been closed in the last nine months, since the coronavirus pandemic hit the city and lockdown was enforced in all parts of the country. Ever since then, the schools are conducting online classes for the students in the city.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus situation has improved a lot of late. The daily infections have been at the lowest level in the last 125 days. The positivity rate has gone down below 1 per cent and least number of daily deaths were recorded in the last 3 months. Delhi on Wednesday reported 871 new cases, taking the cumulative tally to 6,19,618. The number of new cases reported came out of 87,861 tests conducted on the previous day. The positivity rate was 0.99 per cent against the cumulative positivity rate of 7.71 per cent.