Maharashtra revises age criteria for school admissions, pushes cut-off date to September 30

However, a few days back, the state education department issued the schedule for 25 per cent admissions under the RTE Act for economically weaker students where the cut-off date was changed to September 30 for nursery admissions. To avoid any confusion in dates, the state education department issued a circular two days ago extending the cut-off date for all admissions, including the ICSE and CBSE schools. However on their part, schools are miffed with the new age criteria which they say will lead to chaos among parents as well as school managements.

Stating that schools require sufficient time to plan and implement the new age-limit, principals said that the education department must stop taking arbitrary decisions. “All the admissions have already been completed for coming academic year in December. We cannot go and implement any rule retrospectively now. We have followed the cut-off date of July 31 and we will stick to it. Also, I think it is unfair to keep changing the cut-off dates,” said Nandkumar Kakirde, secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Also, principals say they might have to make provisions for a larger intake of students since children born between July 31, 2016 and September 30, 2017 will become eligible for admissions. “Last year, we denied admissions to students who were born after July 31. Now since the cut-off date is extended, it is going to lead to further confusion. Many might have waited to take admission in our school and now with extension in date, their children might no longer fit into nursery but junior KG,” said Radhika Ogale, principal of Seva Sadan School.