Delhi may scrap nursery admissions for 2021-22, schools unlikely to open before July

Vinod Kakumanu
Dec. 30, 2020, 11:45 a.m.

In an important development, the Delhi government has proposed to scrap and suspend admissions in the nursery for the 2021-22 academic year. The state is considering to implement the scrapping of admissions in 2021 and proposing the same for private schools. As a corollary, the 2022-23 academic session will see admissions in two concurrent batches, one each for nursery and kindergarten.

Yet another statement was given by Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia indicating that the reopening of schools is not foreseen until July 2021. He said that even in the event of rapid vaccination from February onwards, the optimum number of the vaccinated will be reached only by July, implying that the schools will be safe to reopen in July only. Meanwhile, the examinations will be carried out with stringent safety protocols.

The reasoning behind the suspension of nursery admissions appears to be the vaccination schedule. The admissions in 2022 will ensure that the children are vaccinated before starting school. the state argued that the classes for the new nursery batches has happened only online and the children have never even stepped into their respective schools, and since the youngest will not go to the schools until the vaccine is generally available, it is fair to admit them only in the year 2022.

The new admissions in nursery happened in April this and the children have been only exposed to their teachers and fellows online, this is not an ideal circumstance in formative years so it will be best to wit the pandemic out.

The state regulates the nursery admissions tightly issuing a notification in November of the preceding year. This has not happened in 2020 giving rise to uncertainties.