GURGAON: Schools in Gurgaon are giving grace marks to children of bureaucrats, diplomats and defence personnel for nursery admissions, drawing protests from parents facing stiff competition for seats.

The grace varies from school to school. Some give special weightage of 10% while others add 10 marks to a child's admission score. This isn't the first year the schools are giving such grace marks but the practice hasn't fallen foul of the law as Haryana, unlike Delhi, doesn't have guidelines governing nursery admissions. It also violates the spirit of the Right to Education Act that doesn't allow such discrimination on the basis of a parent's profession.

DAV Public School in Sector 14 gives 10% weightage to children of diplomats and civil servants. Salwan Public School gives 10 marks to wards of defence, civil servants and martyrs and another 15 points for achievements and contributions of parents.

"It's quite strange that some schools give preference to children of government employees, who are anyway taken care of by the central schools," said Vidushi Sinha, who stays in Sector 15(1) and is scouting for a nursery seat for her child.

Nursery admissions for the 2015-16 session in the city have started early this year but the competition for seats has become stiffer as the number of applicants has increased and confusion over nursery admission regulations in Delhi has forced parents there to "block" seats in NCR schools.

Parents in the city are already peeved about the hasty start to admissions as they feel it cuts down on choices. The grace marks, they complain, puts children in the general pool at a further disadvantage.

Renuka Sharma, a resident of Laxman Vihar who is also looking for a nursery seat for her child, said, "This system is illogical. Why should there be special marks for siblings and alumni? On top of it, they are keeping 10 extra marks for children of government officers."

Aparna Eery, principal of DAV Public School, Sector 14, said, "By keeping 10 marks for this special category, we intend to support them (civil servants) as they have a transferable job." Savinder Kaur Rooprai, headmistress of Salwan Public School, added, "There are no guidelines in Haryana for nursery admissions, so we follow this practice of giving 10 points to the government officers."

On allocating 15 points to parents' achievements, Rooprai said, "We want to understand what extraordinary things the parents have done when they were young so that we can seek their support in our school activities."

Sumit Vohra, founder of the portal admissionsnursery.com said the grace marks were giving some children an "unfair advantage" over others.

District education officer Sunita Ruhil was unavailable for a comment.