Siblings, alumni kids carve out big slice of nursery admissions pie
atterjee Tags : DPS, Springdales, Ashok Ganguly, Right to Education Act Posted: Thu Jan 05 2012, 02:39 hrs New Delhi:
In the frenetic race for nursery admission, having a sibling in the school or alumni parent gives a head start like no other — and in many cases virtually guarantees a seat.

Data for last year collected from various private schools by Newsline reveals that such applicants cornered the lion’s share of seats in the general category in those institutions — as high as nearly 98 per cent in DPS, Mathura Road and 97 per cent in Springdales, Dhaula Kuan.

In these schools, seats for the general category comprise only a fraction of the total seats (see box). Other seats were reserved under quotas like management, physically challenged or children of staff, among others.

Former CBSE chairperson Ashok Ganguly, who headed the committee that in 2006 drafted the first set of guidelines for nursery admissions with a point system, said such heavy weightage to applicants with alumni parents or siblings violates the spirit of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

“The spirit of the legislation is to enable children to study in schools in their neighbourhood. Unfortunately, schools are giving more weightage to alumni parent and siblings than neighbourhood, making it impossible for applicants to make the cut only on the neighbourhood criteria,” he said.

Students applying under the alumni parent or sibling criteria made the cut in large numbers in several private schools.

At Springdales, Pusa Road, every second student, at Vasant Valley, Vasant Vihar, three in every five and in Modern School, Barakhamba Road, two in every five students admitted in the general category was from either of the two criteria.

At Ahlcon International School in Mayur Vihar-I and Bluebells International School in Kailash Colony, every third student in the general category was from this background.

A few schools admitted students through draw of lots, like Apeejay School in Pitampura. But even here, a third of the total seats were reserved under the alumni parent and siblings criteria.

The trend could continue this year too, as the share of points to these two categories in most private schools has remained more or less unchanged.

A few schools have this year introduced extra points for the first-born child, but the weightage to it is not more than 10 points, whereas siblings and alumni parent applicants can corner as many as 40 points in some schools.

Child education rights activist Ashok Aggarwal said parents would always want to have both children in the same school since it is more comfortable, but that doesn’t justify making that criterion a qualification.

“It is a proxy screening process and it distorts the playing field. Also, by giving alumni parents extra points, the incoming class remains homogeneous and from the same social groups,” Aggarwal said.

Aggarwal’s petitions have triggered several landmark court judgments, including the one by the High Court last month directing the Delhi government to notify rules to enforce the RTE Act.

The RTE Act states no school “shall, while admitting a child, collect any capitation fee and subject the child or his or her parents or guardian to any screening procedure”.

The Delhi government decided to enforce the RTE Act in 2011 and banned schools from screening applicants, including interviewing them or their parents.

“Schools are free to identify any category based on policy/principles that are fair, just and reasonable, within ambit of the RTE Act,” the guidelines read, but it permitted the alumni parent and siblings criteria.

Sumit Vohra, founder of popular portal www.admissionsnursery.com, said the alumni parent criteria in particular blatantly violates the spirit of the RTE Act.

“When the legislation says children of educated and uneducated parents have equal right of admission, how can schools be allowed to reserve seats or applicants whose parents have studied in their institutions,” he said.
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