Class struggle begins, again

Nursery admission forms went on sale in the capital, on Tuesday. As a result, long queues of parents stretched along the compound walls of most leading schools, in the morning, reports Joyeeta Ghosh. See graphics

Nursery admission forms went on sale in the capital, on Tuesday.

HT Image

As a result, long queues of parents stretched along the compound walls of most leading schools, in the morning.

Most schools, such as DPS, RK Puram; Sanskriti School; The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar; Vasant Valley; Amity International, Saket; Gyan Bharti, Saket; Bal Bharti, Pitampura, and Apeejay, Pitampura have online admissions only.

Others, such as the three branches of Springdales (Pusa Road, Dhaula Kuan and Kirti Nagar); RS Junior Modern School, Humayun Road; Tagore International, Vasant Vihar; Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and Air Force, Lodi Road, sold forms only from their premises.

An overwhelming number of parents thronged RS Junior Modern School, Humayun Road, since dawn to get the forms.

“I reached the school at 7 am and found that more than 100 parents were already waiting in a line for the form since 5 a.m.,” said Mita Sahni Rakshit, who managed to get the form after waiting for three-and-a-half hours.

The school will sell its forms till January 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“The neighbourhood schools are not very good and travelling to central Delhi is also very easy,” said Rakshit, a resident of Nirmal Vihar in East Delhi.

Parents planning to apply for schools such as Apeejay, Pitampura and Sanskriti School, Chanakyapuri, which have only online registration, have to buy the school prospectus for a password, which is necessary for logging in.

“What is the point of doing the admissions online if we have to go to the school and get a prospectus for the login password, and then come back to submit the form? They could have sold hard copies of the forms. Moreover, they are charging an exorbitant amount — Rs 400 for the prospectus, against the Directorate of Education’s (DoE) guideline of Rs 25 for each form,” said S Gupta, who bought the Pitampura-based Apeejay School’s prospectus.

Sanskriti School is selling its prospectus for Rs 150.

Divya Gupta, who filled up the forms for Mother’s International School; Amity International, Saket, and DPS, East of Kailash online said, “The prospectuses of these schools are available on the website, so it’s very convenient and we do not have to pay to get the prospectus.”

The reputation of the schools took precedence over the points to be gained from the proximity of location, as parents crisscrossed the city to collect forms.

Dhiraj Mehra, a parent from East Patel Nagar, stood in the queue in RS Junior Modern School, Humayun Road for four hours to collect a form for his child.

“This is one of the best schools in the city and getting admission here means we don’t have to worry till class 12.”