Admission Blues

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: Punishment for Delhiites
Jyoti Verma

Parents faced with tough questions, schools deluged with applications and string pulling by parents are all regular features of the annual nursery admission process in Delhi.

The parents, besides preparing their kids for interviews, also dedicate hours to studies and counselling and preparing themselves to withstand pre-admission blues. They even teach their children what the school would teach them in their first standard. The schools put up tough questions in the name of finding the ‘normal IQ and motor skills’ of tiny tots.

Says a parent Rachna Mathur, “I just need my daughter to get admission. Complaining about the system will not help.” A doctor by profession and mother of a four-year-old, Mathur is juggling admission processes at six schools to get into at least one school. The rules and the type of interviews differ. There are no standard regulations.

“The dates also vary leading us to a situation where we are stuck in the process for four to five months. With each school calling us at least thrice, it means wasting 15 working days in attending various rounds of interviews,” she explains. Like Mathur, most parents on an average try five to 10 schools to get into at least one.

The entire admission procedure begins much before schools actually distribute forms. Keeping a track of the schedule of admission, which is hardly advertised; getting the prospectus – either online or paying Rs 25-300 depending on the school; filling and submitting the admission form, which has pages ranging from 4-15; sending kids from the preparatory school for a mock interview to a friend’s place, and finding contacts in a school are important components of the relay race.

The toughest round is the interactive session between parents and teachers. Questions that come up relate to the family’s background, their way of handling the kid, opinion about homework, tutors, responsibility towards the kid, opinions on the school’s philosophy, and open-ended questions about how the parents can help the school.

V K Arora, principal, Apeejay School at Saket, says that schools have their own limitations. “I have 80 seats in nursery, while we get 2,000 applications. Can anyone suggest a way out?” he asks.