Screening in the garb of interaction at NCR schools
Shaswati Das, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, August 28, 2012
This year, parents seeking admission for their children in the NCR schools must first brush up on their general knowledge, followed by gaining expertise in good parenting. For they would be expected express their 'views about the current education scenario' and articulate their understanding of
the parenting skills during the interaction with the school authorities at the time of admission.

Some schools have even come up with questionnaires for screening the parents and children, which violates the Right to Education Act.

"The questionnaire was very detailed and had questions on the child's grandparents' qualifications, characteristics that best apply to our child, our parenting skills and what we would do if the child was involved in a particular situation in school," said a parent, who had been called for an interaction to Amity International School (Vasundhara).

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Though Right to Education Act (RTE) states, "No school or person shall subject the child or his or her parents or guardian to any screening procedure," schools claims that they were not flouting the law, justifying the questionnaire as a "friendly interaction method".

"This questionnaire has been designed for admissions at all Amity Schools. Parents are asked to fill it up to get more information about the child and his family background. There are some parameters that we need to look at since we don't meet the child, but in this case no RTE guidelines are being violated," said a spokesperson for Amity International Schools.

Parents who had been called for interaction by other schools such as Delhi Public School (DPS), Noida, claimed that they were required to fill in a questionnaire, after which the child was taken to a room where he/she was asked to colour, match and identify objects.

"Most of the schools are screening kids and parents and even taking written tests. The excuse given by the schools is that they have not received any notification from directorate of education regarding RTE," said Sumit Vohra, founder of www.admissionsnursery.com

However, school officials defended the move, claiming that it was being done to acquaint the child with the school atmosphere. "This interaction has been designed as a casual talk with the child to make him/her feel comfortable. We don't expect correct answers but the questions are so designed that the child answers spontaneously," said Kamini Bhasin, principal, DPS Noida.