It would also suggest that pre-schools should not be allowed to `prepare' the students for formal schooling (Class 1 and above) and any educational institution imparting formal education should be given a three-year timeframe to ensure its pre-school is "away from its main school".

"No child should be less than four years, as on March 31 of a year, for being admitted to nursery. For kindergarten (KG) it should be five years and for Class I six years. There should not be any formal education in pre-school," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said after his meeting with a cross-section of school principals besides parents of Delhi over the issue.

He said a "consensus" has been evolved over the issue and he will write to Sheila Dikshit seeking its implementation. "I have already spoken to her and I will be writing a formal letter to her. There's need for a policy on the matter. There should not be any formal education in nursery and KG," Sibal said.

Source: The Pioneer Centre fixes 4+ for nursery admissions

SK Vij, dean of Students' Welfare of DU, said, "The main aim of the University in organising this counselling session is to save students from mental harassment. Through school principals and teachers, we are trying to spread our message regarding the courses which students should opt after Class X. School authorities must guide the students in choosing the course."

The counseling session is scheduled to take place on February 13 and February 20 in Delhi University north campus. On February 13, University will be counseling the principals and teachers of private schools and on February 20, DU will be counseling the principals and teachers of Government schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalayas.

After their Class X exams, students get confused regarding the selection of appropriate streams and courses. In the state of confusion, students sometimes choose inappropriate courses in Class XI and after completing their schooling, when they approach Delhi University for admissions in graduation courses, they come to know that the courses they had studied are not applicable for admissions in DU.

Vij further said, "With this perception that they will gain more marks in vocational subjects, students chose subjects like Finance and Management, physical education and Sanskrit in classes XI and XII but there are several courses in the University for which the University do not accept these vocational subjects. Students come with a dream to study in DU but due to such subjects they lose their admission in the University."

Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, Deputy Dean of Students' Welfare, DU, said teachers will be made to understand how to calculate the marks from the best of four subjects and which subjects are compulsory for getting admission in a particular course. The University is holding this session to end the confusion right at the ground level.

The CM said the scheme aims to achieve a General Enrollment Ratio (GER) of 75% in classes IX & X in the country within five years, by providing a secondary school within reasonable distance of every habitation and by improving the quality of education imparted at the secondary level.

The GER at national level as per data available for 2005-06 is 52.26%. Dikshit said the GER for Delhi is 83% for class IX as per provisional data available for 2008-09. But the city government will strive hard to achieve 100% GER by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan.

The Cabinet also gave its nod to the setting up of an institutional framework to implement RMSA. A state mission on RMSA will be constituted under the chairmanship of the CM. Further, an Executive Committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Secretary (Education) will be constituted. It has been decided to convert the existing Vidyalaya Kalyan Samiti of each school into a School Management & Development Committee.

There are at the moment 34 middle schools, 191 secondary schools, 701 senior secondary schools, including 19 Pratibha Vidyalayas. Of the 191 secondary schools, 86 are running in single shifts. Of the 701 senior secondary schools, 305 are running in single shifts. ``There is scope for the upgradation of middle and secondary schools," said the CM. ``Apart from this, greater effort is required to retain children up to the secondary stage by eliminating dropouts," she added.

Dikshit further said it is essential to constitute all required bodies before release of funds for preparatory activities by the Union Government.

The Education Minister's recent tirade against admissions given on the basis of parents' professional and educational background has sent schools into salvage mode.

Keen on staying on the government's good side, many institutions have voluntarily decided to change their criteria. This has led to a delay in results.

Sample this: The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj and Ahlcon International School have postponed their first list -- scheduled on February 1 -- by two days and a week, respectively.

The Srijan School, Model Town, on the other hand, has announced an indefinite delay.

"We'd rather delay by two days than make a rushed change. We will follow the new policy properly," said Shashi Banerjee, principal, The Heritage School, Vasant Kunj, which had 15 points for parents' education.

Source: Hindustan Times By Ritika Chopra Nursery Admissions: Parents, You Have To Wait more, Schools Releasing Lists After Feb 1 To Meet Govt Suggestions

While these fees left many baffling, others rue that the non-transparent points system and early results reduced their kids' chance to get a seat in schools of their choice.

"A top school in Vasant Kunj has asked for donation of Rs 100,000 for securing our ward's admission," writes a parent on admissions nursery.com, a website where parents share their admission-related experiences.

"Yes, they asked for an astronomical amount of Rs 1 lakh. Also we are asked to keep mobiles and bags outside so that one may not record their conversations," claims R S Chadha.

Another parent Vikram writes that a top school having its presence through out the national capital has "asked for Rs 5 lakh for a seat under its management quota".

Sumit Vohra, who runs the website, concurs, saying many parents have complained about this trend adopted by almost all private schools in Delhi and NCR.

Source: Zeenews.com Parents fume over Delhi schools 'donation fees'

Traditionally, students with lower scores got themselves enrolled in the School of Open Learning. But after scoring good marks in their first-year exams, they were allowed to migrate to a college of their choice. But the precedents seem to be changing over the last year.

According to sources, the future of hundreds of students is in jeopardy due to the DU administration developing cold feet on letting them migrate to colleges.

Students at SOL said that migration was no longer a choice for them. They are in a fix due to the university's reluctance to extend the date of applying for migration to regular colleges.

Source: The Tribune By Charu Singh SOL students find migration to DU colleges tough

The websites will have fresh layouts and will provide information about the faculty, course timetables and the admission process.

They will also carry information about cut- off marks required to apply for each course; the number of seats available; the number of seats to be filled by the students under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories; the merit lists for each category and the details of the entrance test if any.

Based on a proposal passed by the executive council in December, the university deputy registrar Ram Dutt sent out circulars advising colleges to make their functioning transparent and to update their websites.

" Maintaining vital information about the university, its functioning and the faculty will make things easier for the present and prospective students," a member of the executive council said.

Anookol Rastogi, a final year student of physical sciences at Kirorimal College, said: " This is a great initiative by the university administration. This will save students a lot of effort."

While it stood fourth in 200708 in the EDI for elementary education, in 2008-09 the national capital fell to the eighth position, according to an education report released by the Human Resource Development Ministry on Friday.

At least 56 per cent of the 4,930 schools covered were government schools. In primary education, Delhi has taken a beating in school infrastructure. It has slipped from second to tenth position.

Upper primary schools -classes VI, VII and VIII -- suffered because of bad infrastructure and their ranks have gone down to 20th from fifth.

In terms of availability and qualification of teachers and teacher-pupil ratio, it has gone down from the third position in 2007-08 to the sixth position.

Source: Hindustan Times Delhi Gets Poor Grade In Education, Schools Slip Down Ranks Due To Infrastructure, Teacher Shortage

Delhi government's mobile education initiative is set to get more wheels.

"The number of construction workers in the Capital has increased because of the Commonwealth Games. Their children, mostly, are not enrolled in schools," Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said."The new mobile schools are mainly for their benefit."

The Chalta Phirta Schools project was launched in 2008 with two buses, equipped with the basic infrastructure of a classroom under the government's flagship programme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

In the Chalta Phirta Schools, children in the age group of 6 to 14 years are taught a bridge course so that they can join a proper school and class.

So far, the pilot project has helped enroll almost 200 kids into proper schools in the last two years.

Source: Hindustan Times The Wheels Of Education - Bus-Class Schools

Girl students in the senior section will have the option of wearing either skirt and blouse or salwar kameez while primary section students will wear tunics. For boy students, the uniform will consist of trousers and shirts and for those in the primary section shorts and shirts. In winters, students will wear grey sweatshirts.

The uniform will combine striped lemon yellow fabric with navy blue and will carry the logo DGS, for Delhi Government School. It has been designed by two teachers from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT): Associate Professor Toolika Gupta and Assistant Professor Anindita Sardar.

"We have designed the uniform keeping in mind the cost and used more appealing colours to make students look presentable and at par with public school students. We have used terry cotton, which is both cheap and easy to maintain," said Gupta.

The government is initially tying up with government textile firms for the production of the dresses and the cost of the uniform remains Rs 500. "Afte the recent brilliant academic results, our focus is to make the students look smarter," said Education Minister Arvinde Singh Lovely.

Around 12 lakh student will be benefited with the decision.