Parents play safe, opt for schools in NCR

Taking a cue from parents whose children had missed out on admission in reputed schools last year, more and more parents have begun looking at options in the National Capital Region (NCR) as a safe bet. Mallica Joshi reports.

Taking a cue from parents whose children had missed out on admission in reputed schools last year, more and more parents have begun looking at options in the National Capital Region (NCR) as a safe bet.

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With many of these schools coming out with forms this week, many parents are getting ready for a long admission season. In Delhi, the nursery admission season starts in December and goes on till March.

"I am keeping track of admission announcements in all Gurgaon schools. My brother's daughter was not able to get admission in any school in Delhi despite there being five good schools in our neighbourhood. I don't want the same to happen to my daughter. So I am also applying to schools in Gurgaon to raise the chances of her getting admission in a good school," said Shalini De, a housewife from Saket.

But the admission process in the NCR towns, however, is not as simple as it is in Delhi.

With no guidelines, schools employ any method of admission. So while one school may have a lottery system, another may be scheduling interactions with parents, and yet another may be following a self-styled points system.

The age criteria too is not fixed with some schools declaring the minimum age as three and other declaring three-and-half years.

"There is no uniformity in the selection process. For parents, this is a huge problem as parents will have to run around a lot to meet the different sets of requirements of each school. The governments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana must recognise the need for guidelines and act accordingly," said Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, a website that guides parents through the admission process.

Despite the lack of clarity, schools in NCR towns continue to be good options for parents in east and south Delhi. "I live in Mehrauli and sending my kid to a school in Gurgaon rather than one in Delhi made much more sense, and I am quite happy with my choice," said Abhinav Makhija, whose son goes to DPS Sushant Lok.

Branches of Delhi Public School, Amity International School and Shiv Nadar School in Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad have already announced the schedule for their admission processes.

While Amity International is selling forms till August 23, Shiv Nadar School has not declared a last date so far. Scottish High International School in Gurgaon will start the registration from Thursday and has declared that the admission will be on a first-come-first-served basis.