he lack of a uniform policy for nursery admissions in the NCR cities of Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad has parents worried. Unlike the capital, which has a set of guidelines for all schools to follow, the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana state education boards have no such policy for admissions in private schools. Most schools in the NCR have written tests for parents and interviews with three-year-olds as their admission criteria. These schools have long questionnaires attached to application forms for parents, asking them unwarranted questions like qualifications of their in-laws, grandparents, whether or not they are teetotallers, among others. Besides, the toddlers are to identify shapes and colours in order to get through the interview to nursery grade.

Neeraj Thapliyal, who has applied to five schools in Noida and Ghaziabad for his kid's admission said, "At one of the schools there are two rounds for being eligible for admission. The first round has a form with 40 objective type questions. The questions range from assessing our parenting skills to the educational and professional qualifications of our in-laws and grandparents.

If on the basis of our answers the form gets selected then we are called for round two, which is an interview with the parents and the child. It is a total bizarre system of selection. Nursery admissions have become tougher than cracking an IIT entrance test."

Another parent based in Gurgaon said, "Since I am a single parent, there was a separate set of questions for this category asking my monthly remuneration, if I am a teetotaller or how I will understand the child's psychology etc. This should not be the admission criteria, as not every parent will be able to answer them, which doesn't mean that their kid does not deserve to study in a good school."

While, the directorate of education (DOE) in Delhi sets a common date for all schools to start the admissions at the same time, schools in the NCR decide the dates on their own.

While some schools including Amity International, Ghaziabad, has wrapped up its online applications, Lotus Valley International School — Noida and Gurgaon branches, and Sun City, Gurgaon, Scottish High, Gurgaon, have just begun its sale of applications. Other private schools are likely to begin admissions in mid-September.

"The UP and Haryana governments must issue a set of guidelines in order to prevent schools from adopting such policies as interviewing children or making parents answer uncomfortable questions. There are a number of issues related to nursery admissions in the NCR of which hundreds of parents complain on the forum. Since admission process here is not uniform it goes on from July to December. Hence, parents are left in a dilemma whether they should block a seat or not as these schools have no unform fee refund policy ," said Sumit Vohra, founder of admissionsnursery.com, a forum to guide parents in nursery admissions.