GURGAON: Parents of children seeking admission in nursery classes for the forthcoming academic session (2016-17) are unhappy about the point-based system that favours certain candidates who belong to the 'creamy layer'.

Certain schools award points to children of parents with enviable professional achievements, are civil servants, or have mentionable "achievement and contribution to society".

For example, Salwan Public School in Sector 15 has allocated 10 extra points for parents who are civil servants, 15 for their "professional field" and 15 for "achievement and contribution to society by the parents".

Similarly, The Sri Ram School has allocated 25 points to an essay under the head of "parents' response".

While the essay prompts themselves can be arbitrary, experts feel candidates can take external help to project themselves as desirable contenders and thus can be misleading. Besides, balancing a ward's educational future on subjective topics seems unjustified to them. Instead, giving score on the basis of proximity to school and or to those with siblings in the same school seem objective because they leave no grey areas.

"If parents are given 9-10 days to write an essay, then they can hire anybody to fill up the form on their behalf. Giving points for the essay is a way to screen the parents, and hence a grey area, and ought to be done away with," said Sumit Vohra, an expert in school admissions and founder of web portal admissionsnursery.

a parent seeking admission for his three-year-old son, said, "Some schools are unfair in their selection process. Are they trying to say that the incompetent parents can't have competent children?"

The schools, however, have a different take on the argument.

Salwan Public School headmistress Savinder Rooprai said the preference to civil servants ws because they have transferable jobs and the school wanted to supprt them. "Moreover, the achievements of parents (that are scored) refer to their performance in school and college that should be known to us so that we know what environment the child has at home and accordingly, we can help them after they are admitted. We are not biased against any category of parents and try to admit a varied mix of parents," Rooprai said.

The director of The Shri Ram School Manika Sharma didn't respond to the TOI's repeated calls and messages.