Navigating the nursery admission process in Delhi for 2025 can be daunting. Here's everything parents need to stay informed and secure a spot for their child.

Key Changes in the 2025 Admission Process

The nursery admission process in Delhi for the academic year 2025-26 has undergone several key changes aimed at making it more transparent and efficient. One significant change is the introduction of an online portal that centralizes the application process for government schools, allowing parents to apply to multiple schools through a single platform. This move aims to reduce the paperwork and streamline the application process.

Visit the official website of the Delhi Education Department @edudel.nic.in.

For most private schools, you'll need to submit applications individually. Here are some of the different processes parents might encounter when applying to these schools:

1. Online form, online submission, online documents upload, online payment - no offline step
2. Online form, online submission, online documents upload, online payment but a second submission of physical copy at school campus
3. Online form, online submission, online payment but the supporting documents submitted at school campus
4. Online form and online payment - form and document submission at school
5. Online form, online submission, online documents upload - Payment by Demand draft of Rs 25
6. Download PDF form from website, fill it and submit at school (one school didn't even have a proper form pdf, they had clicked picture of a wrinkled form and uploaded to the site)

Eligibility Criteria for Nursery Admissions

To be eligible for nursery admissions in Delhi for the 2025-26 academic year, children must be at least three years old by March 31, 2025.

Key Dates for Delhi Nursery Admission 2025

** Keep in mind that these dates are provisional and may be adjusted at any time.

Discrepancies in documentation

There were also discrepancies in the documentation need for same category of documents, some examples are:

Address proof

First/Girl child affidavit

Most of the schools were fine with a common affidavit attested by a Notary. There were some exceptions here e.g. one school had their own format for the affidavit. Another schools needed this signed and attested by a Magistrate or higher authority.

Initial list of potential students

The second phase was where the schools calculated the points/score for each applicant and prepared an initial list of potential students and held lotteries. There were variations here too:

1. Some schools called the parents to school campus to verify the documents in person (before or after the lottery)
2. Some schools conducted lottery in presence of a limited number of parents (seats offered on first-come basis)
3. Some schools conducted the lotteries online with a live stream on YouTube or Zoom
4. Some schools didn't publish any information about the lottery and published the list of selected applicants

Tips from experienced parents

1. Plan ahead - Make a list of schools in a spreadsheet that you wish to apply at. We prepared our list based on distance from our residence and reputation of the school
2. Documents and documents related tips:
   • Keep a laptop/desktop ready, most sites and forms are not mobile friendly
   • Print your AADHAR (Father, Mother Child), self-attest the copy and scan it. Also keep the size of the scanned document within 300 Kb. A good site for reducing PDF size is ilovepdf.com
   • Also keep above document in JPEG format
   • Recent passport size photos in multiple sizes 300x300, 200x200, 160x200, 100x80 (to resize pictures simple use basic editor in Windows or Preview in Mac). Some schools will need ridiculously small sizes for photos like less than 10kb
   • Birth certificate - printed, self-attested, scanned in pdf and jpeg format
   • First/Girl child affidavit - printed, self-attested, scanned in pdf and jpeg format
   • Make sure all scanned documents are readable
3. Whenever you apply to a school, mark it in the spreadsheet with date and notes. Its best to track progress in a spreadsheet
4. Keep your document numbers and address typed in a simple text/doc file so that you can quickly copy-paste on to the forms
5. For online payments, keep your payment details ready (not recommended to keep these in a plain text file for security reasons)
6. Make it a point to check each schools website for updates daily after submitting the applications. Some schools posted updates that required urgent action for parents and I am sure there were parents who may have missed the updates
7. Don't miss any calls for unknown numbers during this period as sometimes schools will ask for some additional information or document by calling you