New Delhi: The race for nursery admissions began in the capital on Tuesday with the sale of admission forms in different schools.

Although parents were seen queuing up in front of the schools since early morning, most of them were happy at the uniformity in the schedule thanks to the Delhi government's initiative.

"The mere thought of the nursery admissions were giving me the jitters and I was really tense last night. Having said that I think the process is quite smooth this time. For one the schedule is uniform in all the schools and that is a big relief," said Heena Sachdev, a parent.

According to Sachdev, the fact that a number of schools like Mothers International and Shri Ram school offer the option of downloading the admission form from the internet is a big help.

"A number of schools have online forms which you can either fill and submit online or take a print out and submit manually. Either way, it is of great help. For the school prospectus, however, you have to go to the school," Sachdev said.

Standing in the rain for an hour to collect the admission form from a school in South Delhi, Meenal Das, another parent said, "I have three-four schools in mind for my child and I hope she makes it to one of them. These days' nursery admissions are as competitive as college admissions!"

To bring uniformity in schedules for nursery admissions, the Delhi government has instructed schools to sell forms between December 15 and January 15.

The schools cannot conduct any interview of children or parents as the Delhi High Court has banned such practices.

As per the schedule, the schools will peruse the application forms till January 30 and bring out the first list of successful candidates by February 1.

Sachdev added, "There is a website called www.nurseryadmissions.com which is a boon for parents like us. The registration on the site is free and they keep updating us on all the important dates related to the admissions, the telephone numbers of schools and also the essential documents that we need to have for the process."

-- IANS