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Apeejay School fails to mention neighbourhood points in online notice
January 03, 2011   4:55:49 AM

Sana Shakil | New Delhi

As parents have begun rushing to their nearest nursery schools to secure admission for their little toddlers, Apeejay School in Pitampura has
failed to mention ‘neighbourhood’ category on its online nursery
admissions notification. Apeejay School has posted on its website the
percentage breakup, it is awarding to the different categories. While
‘sibling’ and ‘alumni’ categories find mention therein, the RTE
specifically asks the schools to include neighbourhood points, based on
the simple logic that students living close to a school should be given
preference to study at the school.

Ashok Aggarwal, jurist and president of Parents Teacher’ Association said that RTE’s basic theme is
based on the neighbourhood concept. Aggarwal said, “How can a school
overlook the neighbourhood concept? It is clearly against the letter and
spirit of RTE.

It seems that the schools are not giving admission to wards but are giving admission to their children.”

The school has devised a system wherein it is giving different weightage to
different categories. Information given on the school’s website informs
that out of a total of 140 seats available for nursery admission, 35
seats have been reserved for economically weaker sections children that
are 25 per cent. While sibling and alumni categories receive 30
percentage and 10 percentage weightage respectively, staff, physically
challenged and ‘Representative Affirmative Action’ have been allotted
five percent, five percent and 25 percent respectively.

‘We have allotted specific weightage to different categories, if admission forms
exceeding these limits are submitted in our school, we will perform a
draw in every category and students will be admitted accordingly in
those categories. We will do random selection as mentioned in the RTE”,
Principal Apeejay School, Pitampura , DK Bedi said. Upon asking what
will become of those students who do not qualify in the above mentioned
categories, the Principal said that the students in question will be put
in the RAA category.

Bedi said, “We want children coming from varied backgrounds to study in our school. This is why we have devised
the RAA category. Management seats are included in the RAA. If students
of various walks of life study together, it will enrich their
education.” Adding further Bedi said, “Not only kids of lawyers and
doctors, but children of farmers will also find a place in our
institution through this RAA category”.

Sumi Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com expressing doubt over RAA category said “RAA is
just another illusion. There is no clarity. Parents are not sure what
the meaning of RAA is. Last year also there was the same problem with
this school. This RAA quota is just based on the discretion of schools.
There is no transparency at all. I wonder how DoE approved this
category”.

The registration process for nursery admissions in Apeejay School, Pitampura is starting from Monday onwards and will
remain open till January 15. Parents across the Capital waiting to admit
their children into nursery school univocally expressed concern over
lack of transparency in the admissions process. Abhishek Ghosh, father
of a three year old from Pitampura said, “My daughter is my first child
and I am from Bengal. I neither qualify the sibling category nor the
alumni category. I had hopes from Apeejay School, Pitampura but now I am
utterly disappointed and sad because they are giving no weightage to
neighbourhood”.