Armed with tips,parents brace for admissions war ahead

Seven years ago,Anupama was doing the rounds of the city schools for her elder daughter. She remembered the trick from one of the playschool sessions she had attended then.

Not much has changed since. Nursery admissions are still a frenzied affair in the city and the NCR region,she said.

The questions were much simpler then,she said. At that time,Delhi schools were allowed to interview children. Now,a High Court order bans any interaction with the child. The schools can have an informal interaction with the parents. Schools in the NCR,however,are not barred from interacting with the children.

“Earlier,they would ask the child to pick out an apple from a fruit tray or to point out a particular colour,” Anupama said. “Expectations have now gone up. They aren’t satisfied with the child recognising a lion in a picture. They also ask the child if it is a wild animal. The child should at least know at least two poems.”

At Amity International School in Noida,the couple spent more than an hour answering a set of 30 questions before the second round of interactions.

Anupama,who lives in Delhi,had also applied to a couple of Noida-based schools. Her daughter got through Ryan International School. When the school session starts in April next year,the family would move to Noida.

“I am not sure if I will apply to Delhi schools. Admissions have not opened yet,” she said. “But I will be attending playschool preparation sessions for parents next week.”

Many Delhi schools will open admissions for nursery and pre-primary classes this month.

The ordeal of filling up questionnaires and answering questions,ranging from the “very personal” to tricky ones on parenting,is just about to begin.

Dr Sakshi,a parent in South Delhi who recently moved to the city from Pune,is nervous about the interaction sessions. At the playschool where her daughter is enrolled,there are no interactive workshops for parents to prepare them for the grilling sessions at the school.

“I am ready to pay for such sessions,” she said. “Forget schools,even getting admissions in play schools are difficult here.”

For now,Sakshi is talking to parents online and surfing popular blogs on nursery admissions to prepare herself,she said.

From filling up application forms to workshops,playschools in the city offer all kinds of help during admission season,and parents often make their selection on the basis of their success rate in getting the enrolled children into good schools. Many proudly put up photos of the children who got into the most sought after city schools on their notice boards.

Major General Satish Mohindra,who runs International Play Time Nursery School,a playschool in Nehru Enclave,said they are about to start weekend sessions for parents to prepare them for questions ranging from cognitive skills and child psychology,to more personal ones.

“Parents don’t understand the rationale behind such questions. They need to answer them with tact. It is all about selling yourself,” he said.

Many playschools in the city have similarly turned into coaching institutes for parents and children.

“This is not surprising. Ideally,a playschool should be all about a child getting to learn the basics and having a good time. But with so much competition,playschools know that if they have to survive,they need to offer these services as well,” a staff member at a Dwarka playschool said.

Although autonomy has been allowed to schools in Delhi for framing their own criteria for nursery admissions,a government list of guidelines for pre-primary admissions requires that recognised schools use a standardised registration form. They must also include parameters like preference for neighbourhood children,siblings of enrolled children and alumni as well as the socially and economically backward classes.

Last year,schools awarded points on various criteria including parents’ education,their profession and in one instance,there were extra points for non-smokers as well.