Delhi schools will promote all nursery students, but parents still unhappy with lost year

Nursery admissions to begin next week. Delhi govt officials say ‘catch-up’ activities can be planned during the first quarter to make up for the loss of learning.

Students in a classroom (Representative image) | Flickr

New Delhi: The Delhi government has decided that students who got admission in nursery in 2019 but were unable to attend school due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lost out on a year will be directly promoted to kindergarten, ThePrint has learnt. 

Shailendra Sharma, Principal Advisor to Director Education, Delhi, said, “A child who got admission in Nursery last year would be promoted to KG this year. Schools in Delhi completed the admission procedure for 2020 in December 2019.”

He added: “Children who are now plus 4 years of age can be admitted to KG.”

For admission in nursery, kindergarten and Class 1, the upper age limit is usually 4, 5, and 6 years, respectively. The lower age limit for admission in these classes is 3, 4, and 5 years, respectively.

After much debate over scraping of nursery admissions in Delhi, the government finally came out with a schedule for the admission procedure Wednesday.

Nursery admission schedule announced by the Delhi govt…. best wishes for all the parents and kids. pic.twitter.com/bGANGnZLvS

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) February 10, 2021

Parents, however, rue loss of one year of learning for their children as they said “delay at such a young age can really pull a child back”.

But education department officials and some school principals said they will focus on “recapitulation” to ensure there is no loss of learning when the new session begins physically in 2021-22.

Parents’ concern

Prateek Aggarwal, a parent to a 4-year-old girl, expressed his concern over one year of wasted learning.

“In 2020, we enrolled her into a private playschool where classes shifted to online mode almost as soon as the session began. It is impossible to convince a three-year-old to sit in front of a screen for extended periods of time. Not only the fee money for the year got wasted, but barely any learning took place. She will now have to repeat her Nursery. A delay at such a young age can really pull a child back,” he said.

Another parent, Amit Gupta, was also worried over the fact that his three-and-a-half-year-old son will have to repeat nursery.

“We got our son admitted to a preschool only in December 2020, after the pandemic showed signs of receding. He is still unable to read or write yet, he will have to repeat nursery because none of the schools are ready to admit him to LKG1.”

‘Have catch-up activities for each class’

Delhi education department officials, meanwhile, said activities will be planned to make up for the loss of learning.

“In terms of learning, the way out could be to redefine the learning goal and have catch-up activities for each class at least during the first quarter when the new session begins physically in 2021-22,” an official told ThePrint. 

Ashok Pandey, director, Ahlcon Group of Schools in Delhi, however, said there hasn’t been much loss of learning for lower classes.

“There has been learning loss say 60 per cent in Class 9, 10 and 11, 50 per cent for Classes 6, 7 and 8 and 30 per cent for Classes 3, 4 and 5, and zero per cent for classes below that.”

More than learning, he added, there was a socio-emotional loss for students who are 4 and 5 year olds. 

“This can only be made up for once these children come to school physically and we’ll address it then,” Pandey said. 

Alka Kapur, principal of Modern Public School, told ThePrint: “A structured way of teaching was followed at our school to ensure that even preschoolers do not lose out on learning.”

She added: “We do understand parents’ concern, which is why as and when physical sessions start for them, a lot of care and time will be spent on recapitulation to ensure that there is no loss of learning.”

Admissions to kick off next week

According to the official schedule, the online registration process for nursery, kindergarten and Class 1 for the academic session 2021-22 will begin on 18 February for admission to around 1,700 schools in the national capital.

The last date for parents to submit application forms is 4 March. The first list of selected children will be published on 20 March, and the second list on 25 March. 

The admission process will conclude on 31 March. Each school will upload its admission schedule on its official website.

The schedule that has been released is for admissions in the general category (75 per cent) entry-level seats available in private unaided and recognised schools in Delhi. 

The schedule for the remaining 25 per cent seats reserved for the economically weaker section (EWS) and disadvantaged (DG) category students will be announced soon.

All schools are required to reserve 22 per cent of their seats in entry-level classes for EWS/DG students and 3 per cent for those with special needs. 

Admission in this regard is held through a centralised process of draw of lots by the education department.

Delhi government officials had in December 2020 said a proposal to scrap nursery admissions is being considered as the schools have been closed for nine months due to the pandemic and will remain closed till a vaccine is available. But school principals had opposed this idea. However, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia last month had ruled out scrapping of nursery admissions.