Nursery admission race begins today,parents count their points

That would have happened only if he had made it to school last year. Kumar applied to 23 schools to have Yathaarth enrolled in nursery last January. Not even one accepted his application.

“My son had to waste one full year. He lost because I studied in a government school,while most good private schools gave a lot of weightage to the children of their alumni,” Kumar said.

One year on,Kumar and his wife are anxious again as they prepare for the admission grind all over again starting Monday,when the process for nursery admissions officially kicks off.

“I will apply to 20 schools this time. My wife will fill the forms,while I will take a half-day off from office over the next week to drive down to submit the forms,” he said.

The Delhi government introduced a new point system for nursery admissions last season,which allowed schools to allot points to applicants based on criteria they deemed fit,expect for a few that were banned by the government.

Over the next three months,thousands of parents will try to secure a nursery seat for their children in a point system,under which some applicants can find themselves at a serious disadvantage.

Three-year-old Aryan is one such child,and his father Manu Dhawan realises the challenge. Aryan scores a naught in two criteria,which have heavy weightage in several schools.

“My son won’t score any points in the alumni criterion,as both my wife and I studied outside Delhi. The neighbourhood criteria will also pull him back,since the better schools are at least eight kilometres from where we live in North Delhi,” Dhawan said.

A few schools give weightage to children like Aryan whose parents have a transferable job,but the weightage is usually not enough for it to alone push an applicant decisively ahead in the admissions race.

The contest for a nursery seat can be less intimidating for some applicants. Take for example Meher Kaur,whose parents live at East of Kailash,South Delhi.

Her mother Paramjeet studied at the Mother’s International School and father at the Father Agnel School. Both the institutions are near her home,tipping the key neighbourhood criterion in her favour.

She will also score on the first child and the girl child criteria,which are popular this time,and the fact that she lives close to several good private schools will help her pocket points in the neighbourhood criterion.

Her mother Paramjeet is still not taking any chances. “We will apply in 15 to 20 schools. We have put together our daughter’s documents and ours and we will start applying from Monday,” she said.