Tags:
Journalism of Courage
In this nursery admission season, parents have plenty of choice without ringing up the schools: more websites, interactive blogs, and even a book to get all the information they seek
The confusion among parents over nursery admissions has now translated into business opportunities for some. A handbook for Delhiites seeking nursery admissions for their children was published this Diwali by Ashok and Sujata Gupta, a couple who launched a blog and ran a helpline last year for harried parents.
The electronic book 8212; 8216;Parents Handbook Nursery Admissions in Delhi8217; 8212; is selling on ebay for Rs 249 and Gupta claims it has all the information a parent might need about admission in some of the top-ranked schools in the city.
While there are at least four blogs and online community portals, at last count, on nursery admissions this time around, Gupta8217;s book is possibly a first to tackle the issue that has had parents going around in circles every session of late. 8220;I thought, 8216;why not use my experience and help other parents8217;?8221; the IT professional says. 8220;It starts with simplifying the Department of Education8217;s rules.
8220;You can say it is good business opportunity 8212; we are putting in a lot of effort, and running a website costs money.8221;
With admissions about to begin, parents are now increasingly flocking to blogs and portals to keep track of deadlines and eligibility criteria.
After a Supreme Court interim order accorded full autonomy to schools 8212; institutions are now only required to incorporate some Education department guidelines 8212; most private schools have charted their own schedules. What adds to parents8217; worries is the lack of information. As one parent says, newspapers often carry notices but these are easy to miss.
Modern School, for instance, has announced it will issue forms only for four-and-a-half hours on November 15. The news has been discussed widely on the forum of the site nurseryadmissions.com, with parents asking for help and tips.
Rajan Arora, the moderator and founder of the website, says traffic has increased by 8220;leaps and bounds8221; since he and wife Puja launched the website last year as a discussion forum for harried parents.
8220;After all,8221; as Shilpa Gupta, a parent, says, 8220;where does one get information from?8221;
On Net, hitting bull8217;s eye Arora says the site has some 3,500 members and more than 100 new one join every day. According to the website alexa.com, which tracks and measures page views of sites across the world, nurseryadmissions.com is hugely popular and traffic is on a constant northward curve since mid-September.
8220;We think schools should come out with a common admissions system to ease worries of parents,8221; Arora says. Jaspreet Sahni, a parent and contributor to the portal, says, 8220;You will see chaos now, and kilometres-long lines for forms.8221; He says related websites and blogs makes it easier for the likes him as there are so many parents looking for and giving out information.
Sahni says he became a member 20 days ago after a friend told him about the site: 8220;Now I spend two or three hours every day on it 8212; there is so much information. We should thank the authorities that they have got us together. It is due to their lack of proactive attitude that we have become so involved.8221;
Arora says such sites help parents share information without having to waste hours calling individual schools to enquire about forms or, worse still, going there. In terms of opportunity cost, just gathering information would cost a couple at least a month8217;s salary, he says.
