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Selected in first, out in second

Hindustan Times | ByJoyeeta Ghosh, New Delhi
Feb 07, 2010 10:44 PM IST

Nursery admissions are a never-ending nightmare for parents. Some parents, banking on their educational qualifications to get their child admitted to a school of their choice got a rude shock when schools like Srijan School, Model Town, declared their revised list, reports Joyeeta Ghosh.

Nursery admissions are a never-ending nightmare for parents. Some parents, banking on their educational qualifications to get their child admitted to a school of their choice got a rude shock when schools like Srijan School, Model Town, declared their revised list.

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On December 24, last year, when Srijan School, Model Town, declared its first list, Santosh Sabharwal was elated.

Her daughter’s name was among the 433 candidates. Both Sabharwal and her husband are postgraduates so they scored 29 out of the 30 marks allotted to parents’ profile. “I was happy and relived to see that our child had 79 points—way above the cut-off which was 57,” she said.

Parents who didn’t make it cried foul and called the parent profile criteria ‘discriminatory’. After the Directorate of Education’s recent diktat to schools to withdraw the parents’ educational qualification, the school revised its list on February 6. The new list gives more points given to siblings. The points allotted under different region go up to 20, the points for age come down to 10. Sabharwal’s daughter didn’t make it.

“I am disappointed. We lost the 29 points for parents and since she is our first child, we lost points in the sibling criteria. I scored 20 marks in the age criteria. Now, that has been reduced to 10. Earlier, I ranked sixth, now I am not on the list.”

While a comparison of marks was possible in the case of Srijan School, many other schools that changed their lists and redistributed the points allotted to educational qualifications of parents among the existing criterias such as neighbourhood, sibling and alumni.

Not a chance

Smita Nanda had hoped for a seat in Heritage School, Rohini, for her son on her educational qualification. Nanda found that her son was not qualified for a divine intervention either as some schools resorted to lottery system. His name wasn’t in the list of 933 candidates called for the lottery. “I had lost points in the girl child, alumni and sibling criteria. I, and my husband, are both MBAs and had scored full points in the qualification. I had scored 70 but now only 40 and only those above 40 were called for the lottery. The system is inconsistent and the changes have only increased our woes. We had applied to 15 schools but have not acquired a seat anywhere.”

Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionnursery.com said, “Parents who applied on their educational and professional qualification feel cheated now. The announcement by DoE came too late, the decision should have been announced at the beginning only.”

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