NCR schools safer bet

If you feel it is too early to worry about your child’s nursery admission, think again.

If you feel it is too early to worry about your child’s nursery admission, think again.

HT Image

East and south Delhi residents should start applying to avoid missing out on the opportunity, as schools in Noida and Gurgaon have already started the admission process for the next academic year.

Increasing number of parents are opting for Noida and Gurgaon as admission to a Delhi school becomes more difficult.

While in the Capital nursery admissions start in late December-early January, parents are already geared up for the process. “Our friends had warned us that getting admission in a Delhi school is close to impossible, so we are applying in various schools in Noida as well,” said Manisha Kumar, a resident of Patparganj in east Delhi.

Consider the case of five-year-old Arjun’s mother Nimisha Rai, 34, who lives in Mehrauli. Rai, a Kathak dancer and her marketing executive husband Amrish had applied to 20 schools in Delhi for Arjun’s admission in the last session. Not one of them admitted Arjun. “I hadn’t applied to any school in Gurgaon. I didn’t even know when the forms came out,” said Rai.

This move proved prudent as all Delhi schools rejected their child again. He finally got admission in Shikshantar, a school in Gurgaon. With the admission criteria excluding more people than they include, parents feel that areas in NCR are a good option for their children.

“I have one son, we are not alumni of any Delhi school, since my wife and I belong to Jaipur, neither are we single parents. These are the kind of criteria for which points are given and we lose out on a lot of them,” said Mahesh Rathod, a resident of Mayur Vihar phase III, whose son goes to DPS Noida.

Many parents even prefer schools in NCR. “Some very different and good schools have come up in Gurgaon in the last decade. They don’t tax children as much as mainstream schools,” said a parent.