Anxiety builds up as schools release list

Delhi Public School (DPS), Vasant Kunj, declared a list of the probable candidates for the first list on Monday. Joyeeta Ghosh reports.

Delhi Public School (DPS), Vasant Kunj, declared a list of the probable candidates for the first list on Monday.

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This was one of the schools Mansi Saraswat had applied to for the nursery admission of her twins. Saraswat missed the cut-off in the list by 5 points. The minimum cut-off was 35.

"I live barely 500 metres from the school but could not make it to the list. I have two boys so I missed out on the girl child points besides the alumni and sibling points. I was banking on the neighbourhood schools the most; I am really tense now," said Saraswat.

With the seats for general candidates shrinking due to the 25% reservation for children of economically weaker sections, parents from the general category are facing the heat as some schools have started shortlisting candidates, while others have declared them already.

As per the Directorate of Education's common admission schedule, all schools are supposed to declare their first list by February 1.

DPS, Vasant Kunj, for instance received over 1,400 applications for 85 seats and have selected 129 candidates for verification of documents. "In case all the candidates are successful, we have to conduct a lottery among those who are tied at some points," said Bindu Sehgal, principal-in-charge.

DPS International, RK Puram, on the other hand has declared its first list on Monday. There were 41 seats for the general category and a total of 61 candidates were short listed out of which 39 candidates were confirmed but 22 candidates were tied on the same points and had to go through the lottery for merely two seats.

This only means that even if the parents are shortlisted based on points, admissions may not be guaranteed.

"What if I am shortlisted but my points are tied? I may not make it in the lottery. Being eligible for point will mean nothing then," said an anxious Priyanka Sharma, parent of a three-year-old girl.