School146;s out

The rejection list read like a who8217;s who of the Capital

Like every parent in Delhi seeking school admissions, I opened a prominent school8217;s website at the appointed hour of 4 pm to check if by some impossible stroke of luck, my 4-year-old made the cut. My colleagues peered over my shoulder in solidarity while I scrolled down the ridiculously short list of 15 applicants who made it. Predictably, my son8217;s name figured nowhere. His score on the new point system based on siblings, alumni, parents8217; education, girl child and residence, was a dismal 30 on 100.

You desperately need some humour to survive the ordeal. I had a good laugh going down the list of 2,085 rejected names to see how the rest of my friends/acquaintances had fared. I spotted names of friends who I knew had lied. One who barely scraped through Class 12 and lived far away from the school, got a whopping 45 on 100. Not that it helped. She didn8217;t make it either.

Maybe in its own warped way, the Ganguly Committee has got it right. This new transparent system of listing the points alongside applicants8217; names is a huge leveller. This school8217;s rejection list ran like a veritable who8217;s who of Delhi. Along with us mortals, children of prominent industrialists, politicians, fixers, were all chugging along with 25 on 100 and nowhere to go. That was a somewhat pleasing thought. As one parent put it, 8220;This year pull, push and money are just not working.8221;

Delhi8217;s so-called top schools, run by city bigwigs, operate like exclusive clubs and there8217;s stiff competition among them to get the 8216;right8217; students. They leverage admissions to grant favours to those they need for their bigger businesses. They make serious money but never return the deposit if you choose not to send your kid to their institution. Now the Ganguly Committee has clipped their snooty wings and arm-twisted them into playing by the rules.

However, desperate applicants still find ways to beat the system. I know of some who8217;ve taken short-term leases in localities close to schools to get the crucial 20 points for 8216;proximity to home8217;. One lady even installed a phoneline in her new home in case the school calls. But a neighbour had the funniest story to share: his driver8217;s son made it to this exclusive school on the economically weaker sections quota, while his own got rejected.