Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) It was the D-day that parents of 3-4-year olds were anxiously waiting for months tiogether. And when schools Monday put up the list of children who had made it to nursery class, it brought joy to the parents of successful kids and disappointment to the others, who slammed the point-system of admission as “disgusting”.
“I am very happy today as my three-year-old son got admission in a reputed school like Ramjas. Finally, our months of hard work was successful,” Rajkumar Gupta, a parent who lives in Anand Parbat area, told IANS.

A lot of schools came out with their nursery admission lists Monday. Among them were Sanskriti School, Delhi Public School - Mathura Road, Vasant Valley, K.R. Mangalam, Bal Bharati Public School near Gangaram Hospital, Birla Vidya Niketan and Modern School at Humayun Road and Vasant Kunj.

“I had applied at several schools in Dwarka, including DPS Dwarka. Though my daughter didn’t get admission there, she secured admission in another good school. So, I am happy. But yes, there needs to be a uniform system of admission,” said Munish Sharma, a resident of Dwarka area.

For nursery admissions, schools in the city follow a 100-point system, according to which they are awarded points for factors like siblings studying in the same school, neighbourhood factor, alumni, girl child or first born.

However, a number of schools had included additional criteria such as the parents’ proven track record, views on education, their professional and educational qualifications and also held group discussions with parents. Some of these schools were Sanskriti, Vasant Valley, Gyan Bharati School, the Heritage School.

But the Delhi government came out with another directive recently, that awarding points for parent’s profession and qualifications was discriminatory and asked schools to scrap the criteria.

For parents whose children failed to get admission, the day was an unhappy one.

One such aggrieved parent was Shikha Khullar. She said: “We had applied in eight schools for my daughter but she failed to get admission in any one. I hope she gets admission in the next list.”

Sumit Vohra, who runs a website www.admissionsnursery.com that is dedicated to helping parents in the nursery admission process, was critical of the admission system.

“A lot of schools declared their lists Monday. However, people are disappointed and disgusted at the current system. The problem is that there is no uniformity in the system that schools are following to select children,” Vohra told IANS.

“Some schools declared their list a few days ago while some have postponed it in light of the education department’s order. The parents are disheartened,” he added.

“I don’t know what to say and how to react. I never imagined the lists would be so disappointing. This point system is cheating with parents like us,” said another disappointed parent, P. Guha.