Confusion among parents applying to EWS category

New Delhi: Five days after the nursery admissions for the EWS-DG (economically weaker sections–disadvantaged group) category began in the city, confusion prevails among many parents about the application process, which has been made completely online for the first time. 

Parents said that they are encountering problems while filling the centralised form on the directorate of education’s (DoE) website and that the helpline number provided by the department is of no help. 

Since only one form per candidate is accepted, some of the parents who made mistakes while filling the form, complained that the software wasn’t accepting a new form even after deleting the first one. 

“I made some mistakes in the first form and deleted it. Now the software is not accepting the new form. I have no idea how to proceed now,” said a parent, who wished to remain anonymous. 

Another parent, Arjun Kiraad, who is applying under the disadvantaged category for his child, faced some problems while selecting the schools. 

“I did not like the schools in the zero to one kilometre distance — which is step two in the online form — and wanted to move forward to step three. However, the software is not letting me go ahead without selecting schools in the first category. It is a hassle,” he said.

Another significant problem highlighted by education activist Sumit Vohra, who is also the founder of admissionsnursery.com – an online forum for the parent community, is about the relaxation of upper age limit for children with mental disabilities. 

In the 2018-19 session, the upper age limit for EWS-DG category students has been set at five, six, and seven years for nursery, KG, and class one respectively. 

“Reports have said that school principals have been given the authority to choose on a case-to-case basis for children with mental disabilities, who have crossed the upper age limit, and decide on the admission. But a big flaw in this is how parents with kids, who are above the set limit, will apply in the first place when the website won’t accept applicants above five years? How will school principals choose when they won’t even receive applications,” asked Mr Vohra. 

Till last year around 1,100 schools, which comes under the Delhi School Education Act and Rules 1973, were allotted applicants through the online system. The remaining 600 schools, which are recognised upto the elementary level by the DoE under RTE Act, 2009, issued offline application forms.